Haruno and Sakura
by LittleFallingStar
Summary: Sakura Haruno had a secret. It was a well-guarded secret too. She knew the truth. The truth about everyone she looked at. Neither the future, nor the past, just the truth at that exact moment. Their thoughts, their motivations, their fears and abilities. Whom they loved and hated. She saw them and knew their very soul. And she loathed what she saw. (Darkfic)
1. Chapter 1

Haruno Sakura had a secret.

It was a well-guarded one too. No one alive besides her father and her aunt knew about it.

The Haruno clan, although rather small, hadn´t always been merchants. No, that had been a rather recent development. Only four generations ago, they had been ninjas. And they had a powerful bloodline limit.

To Sakura, who possessed the rare gift of her ancestors, there were never any secrets.

She knew the truth. The truth about everyone she looked at. Neither the future, nor the past, just the truth at that exact moment. Their thoughts, their motivations, their fears and abilities. Whom they loved and hated. She saw them and knew their very soul. Often the truths she knew about people could be used to predict their actions or explain the past. She knew all the secrets in the village and she also knew she could never talk about it. And so she didn´t talk much to begin with.

Her late grandfather had been the first to figure out what was wrong with her. Old Tatsuo had been surprised. He had thought the power had died out generations ago. Nevertheless, he had still remembered his great grandfather. That man had been equally irritated by the world. Precise. Sad. Detached. Yet, strangely comforting when needed. After realizing she had the Soul Seeing Eyes, the Kekkei Genkei that had been the inspiration for their family crest, he made his son swear to never tell his wife. It was no surprise, that her mother resented and feared her for her strange behavior. In the beginning, oh how she had loved her pink haired little girl. But she never smiled and Mebuki became concerned. She also never spoke, only ever stared at people blank faced and Mebuki couldn't shake the fear that her baby was different.

Sakura didn't speak until her fourth birthday. It didn't occur to her until then, that it would be better to clear things up, before they got out of hand.

When she first spoke, it was to assure her mother that she wasn´t in fact, like previously assumed, mentally challenged. Instead she rather preferred to remain silent, thank you very much. She then requested to be let into the academy as soon as possible.

Her mother grew afraid of her and little Sakura hadn´t been able to fully understand why.

Her father was proud, yet he also couldn´t bring himself to love her. She was too cold, too detached, it scared him that she was almost like a puppet. He had tried for some time, to use her ability to improve his profit by making her tell him which of his suppliers were deceiving him. She hadn´t answered, knowing that he wouldn´t allow her to become a ninja if he knew she would be an asset to his operation. There was a distant aunt, that lived in a place far away, whom the girl had never met. This woman knew about Sakura and Sakura knew nothing about her.

Sakura knew her being like this was the reason she was an only child. Her mother had gone to the hospital once to get rid of a potential sibling when she was nearly 5. When she asked her mother about it, purely out of interest, not out of malice, her mother had stared at her for two minutes before breaking down crying, demanding to know how she knew it.

"I saw it." (on your soul). Mebuki´s crying only increased. Feeling bad about that, because she didn´t want to hurt her mother, Sakura tried to console her by hugging her from behind. Instead of helping it had only made matters worse. Before she knew it, her mother had thrown her across the room. There was a loud crack when she hit her face on the ground. A thin rivulet of blood trailed down the side of her face.

"Don´t touch me,", Mebuki spat.

She never tried touching her mother again after that. The gash on her brow healed, but a scar remained, reminding Sakura every time she looked into a mirror.

In school she had learned that families loved each other. It was an unfamiliar concept to her. There was only resentment, fear and emptiness at home.

The world was an awful place. Sakura knew that to be a truth. She also knew she needed to become stronger, if she wanted to survive. And all of it was the fault of a man named Danzo Shimura. Sakura saw him once, in the street while he was on his way to the Hokage tower. It was the first time in her life that she cried. His soul was so unhinged, cruel and ruthless, she couldn't help herself. It had scared her to death. Kizashi and Mebuki both had been terrified.

She was five, when she started training herself by going to the library and reading until they had to remove her in the evening. The desk clerk at the time, Maito Gai (bless his heart) helped her to get started with all the academy theory. Other than clan children she didn´t receive regular taijutsu training, so she made up for it and wore weights and began by improving her stamina through jogging. Gai-sensei´s mind was always full of exercises, so she implemented a few of them into her daily workout routine.

It took her no time at all to persuade her father to hire a tai chi master. After all he didn't want Mebuki to know about his various escapades with other women and men, much less the two little sisters she had outside the village.

It was even easier to make Mebuki buy her workout gear, blunted kunais and shuriken. Her father still didn't know about the hospital visit and her mother, panic-stricken like a deer whenever Sakura addressed her, gave her everything she wanted, and a list usually sufficed.

Sakura was six, when she befriended Ino in the park. The weather had been beautiful and even Sakura could appreciate a nice sunny day with a soft breeze, so she read her book on chakra control there.

Ami and her friends, some girls whose names Sakura had forgotten already, thought it was fun to terrorize the little girl with the supposedly big forehead. Sakura hadn't cared in particular for the bullies' feeble attempts. They were envious of her hair color and tried to make her feel bad in retribution. She had told them one or two uncomfortable truths about themselves and they had left her in peace, never to come back again.

Ino had come to the rescue a little too late but Sakura didn´t mind. Ino was the first human she had ever seen so far and wanted to befriend. She liked that Ino always spoke her mind. She was so genuine, unlike many other people. The truth was always on her face, for the world to see. Sakura loved her fiercely. It was the first time she smiled.

She was seven, when she started the academy and she realized she couldn´t let everyone think she was a genius when she only acted upon her gift. Her answers on the first day of school made her teacher so uncomfortable, that he left because he didn´t want to deal with seven-year-olds saying things, like: "I don´t think you need to teach us that, yet, most of us probably won´t live to survive our 14th birthday,", in response to telling the girls they would have kunoichi-classes later that day.

Sakura knew she had been right. He knew it too. But he didn´t want to hear it from a small girl with pink hair and a civilian background.

Seven still, when she decided to tone it down and assumed a valid cover, her work out continuing in secret. She dumbed her answers down, as far as she could without arousing suspicion. Her entrance exams had been immaculate after all. During taijutsu training there was no need for her to pretend very much. The clan children had all been trained since they could walk and all she had been doing so far was improving her speed, flexibility and stamina. Even if her tai chi master buttered up her ass with praise, she couldn´t compete with the clan children in taijutsu just yet. Especially Hinata, who had been drilled by her father every single day since she had been able to walk, was far ahead of her.

It was in her fourth month of academy that the Uchiha massacre happened. Sakura had seen Itachi the day before it. She had seen the truth on his aggravated soul. He was sobbing internally. It was then, that she created her shit-list. Danzo was the first person on it. He needed to suffer. And she would make sure he did.

She was eight, when she finally managed to seem perfectly useless. She had developed a second personality in the process that didn´t have her powers but it worked well for her, although she wasn´t entirely sure how it had happened. Both agreed to call the younger personality Sakura. The older one had in her head always thought more of herself as Haruno.

Sakura loved acting. She made it her personal mission to be able to fool every single person in Konoha without fail. She also adored Ino and had a sort of love hate relationship with Naruto.

They were eight, when they misjudged the effect it would have on Ino if Sakura pretended she liked Sasuke too. Both agreed it was poorly planned and could have been avoided, but it was important to their cover then, so Sakura continued the farce for them. They were rather indifferent towards Sasuke, so the effect Sakura's obnoxious "Sasuke-kuuun!" had on him, didn't matter in their eyes.

Hinata was nearly eight when her father gave up on her. Sakura and Haruno, who both felt bad for her, invited her to their training. It was only for an hour per day, but it helped Hinata immensely. Haruno knew it was the distance from her father that made her stronger. The little Hyuuga was under the constant impression that she wasn't good enough and once Haruno had seen the man she figured out why.

Hyuuga Hiashi didn't feel like his daughter was cut out for the ninja life. In his mind she was resembling her mother too much, to become a strong ninja, to be strong enough to be the heiress. He didn't like that he had to push her so much, afraid he might break her in the end.

Sakura made sure to give Hinata the feeling of belonging and love. It was remarkable how much she improved once she developed more self-esteem. Haruno wondered about that concept but Sakura had read up on human behavior since her "birth" to improve her acting. Haruno had been called emotionally stunted by her in the process. She had shrugged internally, it didn't matter.

They were nine, when Haruno allowed Sakura to end their friendship with Ino over the nonexistent crush on the lonely, broken boy. It broke both their hearts a little but then again at least they didn't have to see Ino´s huge guilty blue eyes over being in love with Sasuke too much to not want to give him to Sakura. Sakura herself was smug over the fact how easily everyone believed her acting. She didn´t like Sasuke much.

 _I despise him. Pfff. Not like. Ha – the little asswipe only thinks of himself. He is impolite even to those who show him kindness and he is obsessed with his stupid vendetta._

 **He is a child. A relatively normal child. We´re the exceptions, you can´t expect everyone else to be as mature as us. And besides, he is lonely. He doesn´t have friends, and the weekly visits to this so called therapist don´t work. He tells them some lies and is on his merry way back to brooding alone in his home, which is where his parents died.**

 _I still don´t like him._

 **Neither do I. He is too hateful. I foresee tragedy in the future. That or he will get himself killed early.**

They were nine, when they had no friends besides Hinata and decided to go to the library more often again. Not having Ino as a friend meant a lot more downtime between physical training and they didn´t want to waste it. Hinata sometimes accompanied them to the library. The little Hyuuga was, apart from their parents, the only person who knew they weren't useless, but she respected Haruno´s choice to appear so. They trained together more often.

The desk clerk in the library had given up on the pink haired girl. He thought they were stupid, because it appeared as if they were reading the same books over and over, when really they just read books and scrolls from the genin and chunin sections, and put them in the covers of academy books. It was funny to them how Shiranui Genma could be so careless, especially when they came in every day at precisely the same time and left exactly two hours later. Sakura had Haruno check – no normal child without a clan had a schedule this strict.

Once Genma had decided that they were useless and stupid, he didn´t monitor them any longer and they were able to roam the restricted sections more freely. They didn´t when Hinata was with them. And they didn´t dare try to enter the jonin section. That would have been too obvious. Even Genma with his mind made up would have noticed.

They read books on politics in the great ninja villages, torture techniques, fighting styles, war and fight strategy, chakra control, anatomy and healing, elemental jutsu, and everything else that captured their attention.

They were ten, when Haruno started to resent their village, to hate the villagers with a vengeance. The lonely broken boy, remained exactly that, because nobody cared about his emotional state. He had no person to confide in and yet he was still better off than the other lonely little boy, who was not broken, not by far, but he was disregarded due to his container status to an extend that made her want to hurt them all. Even the children had picked up on this behavior and Naruto´s only friend seemed to be their chunin instructor Umino Iruka. But Iruka´s gentleness was overshadowed by the blank hate Naruto received from anyone else in the village. Haruno had waited for things to change. He was likable, happy and loud. She found him endearing, even if she wasn´t actively seeking out his friendship. But her waiting was in vain and she realized, that she had to do something herself.

They knew they couldn´t suddenly change their behavior towards Naruto but Sakura made sure to treat him friendlier and care more and more for, until they were eventually friends. They brought him food most days and helped him clean his apartment. Haruno helped him with his taijutsu training and Sakura learned cooking together with him. He was a natural talent, something that couldn´t be said for her.

They were ten, when Haruno first killed. Sakura hid in the back of their mind. She didn´t want to see it.

The man was a widower. He had lost his wife and children during the Kyuubi-attack ten years before and he was angry. A civilian merchant, that had no idea that Naruto was his very own being. Nevertheless he had figured out where Naruto lived or what he did during the day. His plan was simple, but would have been effective. Sell the child spiked instant ramen. If she had let him proceed, Naruto would have died. ,

Haruno had poisoned him. It was easy. Before their grandfather died, he had given them several scrolls of his great grandfather. She couldn´t understand most of them, yet but among them happened to be the summon scroll of ravens.

They had summoned them in their room and they had agreed to the contract after realizing they had the Soul Seeing Eye. After Haruno had told them she needed to protect a friend, one of them, Munin, brought her a small vial.

The man had cursed her in her in his death and asked her why, why she would protect "the wretched demon creature". She had simply rolled her eyes at him.

"He is my friend, and he is a fluffy and sweet human, who deserves to live, unlike you utter piece of garbage. "

There was so much pain and hatred, so much suffering. Haruno just wanted it to stop. She had no idea how, though. She killed a few more times after that. Rapists and murderers of the innocent. Sakura didn´t approve but Haruno had seen their souls. They showed no remorse for their deeds, nor any shred of goodness. Worst of all they planned to do it again. Haruno made sure they wouldn´t.

They were 11 when Haruno uncovered the secret of sealing. It was like breathing air to her. Never before had anything really challenged her mind. Each new seal was like a riddle begging her to be solved. She incorporated weight seals into their training and got rid of the simple weights. When she asked Hinata if she was interested in a weight seal, the girl had declined. The prospect of having a seal on her frightened her. She associated seals with the caged bird seal her cousin Neji was cursed with.

They were 11, when she let Sakura take over for more than a few hours for the first time. It was refreshing. She had never realized how tired she was of all the pain.

Haruno allowed herself to sleep more often then, while Sakura took over her body for longer amounts of time. It was a good arrangement, because even if they were not the same or shared the same memories, Sakura being all fluffy, socially knowledgeable and caring and Haruno being tired of everything, they talked sometimes and often enough agreed on certain things. Haruno liked to stay in the back of their head mostly anyway, even when she was awake. The only times when she really took over was to study some sealing scrolls.

Sakura never forgot that Haruno was the original personality. She knew that what she called inner and occasionally Ha-chan was a completely different person and not just some voice inside her head, telling her strange things.

 **Train harder. Leave Sasuke alone for some time, we have better things to do. Ignore our parents. Dumb it down a little more unless you want to arouse suspicion. Widen your chakra reservoir. Don´t read that book, read the scroll on sealing. Train harder.**

 _Chill, I got it covered ok? Just go back to sleep. I´ll wake you when something interesting happens or when I´m back at the library._

They were 12, when they graduated. Haruno was awake for the first time in a few days, an ecstatic Sakura had woken her.

They had been placed in a team with both lonely boys. It was one of those rare surprises. Iruka had recommended to put her on a team with Naruto and Kiba. He was more concerned with their chemistry and less with matching their abilities to the best possible outcome. Haruno wondered who had thought it was a good idea to put her on a team with them, but when she saw Sarutobi during the graduation ceremony she couldn´t discern any special thought about her. He had been preoccupied by thinking about how proud Naruto´s father would be.

The three of them waited for their sensei to appear. When he did, he was 3 hours late and he lied about his first impression. He was terrified he would let them down, too.

"Oh...me? My name is Kakashi Hatake. What I like...I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future...hmm...never really thought about that...as for my hobbies...well, I have a lot of hobbies."

He introduced himself on the rooftop and Haruno cringed inwardly as she saw him. So she allowed Sakura to react for them. It was a good thing Sakura was mostly unaware of the truths Haruno saw.

(I like my dogs, I love the friends I still have left and Konoha. I hate myself. My dreams are dead and my life is filled with regret and guilt but I live on for the village. I read porn and talk to dead friends at the memorial.)

The day after that horrendous experience, Kakashi tested whether he would send them back to the academy or not. It was the so called bell-test.

 **I´ll take over for a while.**

 _Knock yourself out. Imma look at you giving us away and earning us a psych eval._

 **Thanks for your confidence Sa-chan.**

Of course it was not about who got the bells. It was about teamwork. Having deepened her friendship with Naruto more in the last 2 years, she snatched him before he could attack their sensei and brought them out of earshot. She landed silently on a low branch and sat Naruto, who was already loudly protesting down. Then she scanned their surroundings making sure the area they had landed in was advantageous for the half formed plan in her head. They were in the tree covered part of training ground 3 now. When she held her head just right she could still see Kakashi in the open a rough 50 meters away, totally crushing Sasuke, who had tried to take him on his own.

Idiot.

"Shut up, Naruto. He is a Jonin. You wouldn´t stand a chance on your own. Unless we work together we´ll never get the bells, you realize that, don´t you?", she said.

It had the desired effect. Naruto, still sitting on the branch, sheepishly rubbed his head and looked down for a moment before grinning widely at her.

"Then we´ll work together."

She nodded with a small smile on her lips and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Yes, of course we will."

"Maybe we should get Sasuke on board?"

They agreed, that Haruno should go to look for Sasuke, while Naruto prepped his surroundings. Even if his prank in school the day before had been childish, he had a true talent for traps. Since they had befriended him, they had helped him with all his training, encouraging him to improve in a way that their teachers never could. Needless to say his grades had improved by a landslide. He found it funny because hers had still been terrible.

But no such thing could be said for their interaction with Sasuke. Sakura´s fake crush on him made him defensive whenever they were near. Not that they actually wanted to talk to him, they simply hadn´t anticipated that someone would put them on the same team.

It was no surprise for Haruno that Sasuke had already tried to take Kakashi down on his own. On the other hand, people didn´t surprise her often, unless she hadn´t seen them in a while. The genjutsu that Kakashi tried on her from a distance was not creative. A half dead Sasuke collapsing on the ground. Truly inspiring. For a seven-year-old perhaps. Her true feelings concerning the lonely broken boy were only pity and maybe a little contempt. How could that dumbass think his brother was a coldhearted killer? So the scene that Kakashi showed her was mainly annoying. She didn´t even bother to dispel it and simply marched on in her search for Sasuke. The fact that she was effectively impervious to genjutsu did of course help.

Haruno even winked at him where he sat in his tree reading his little porn book. The look of horrified surprise was totally worth it.

 _Psych eval. Tomorrow. All my hard work, Ha-chan. Come on!_

When she found Sasuke, she barely suppressed an eye roll and ripped him out of the ground, put him on his feet and proceeded to dust him off. Then she turned around again, motioning him to follow her. She didn´t check whether he was complying.

"We´re trying teamwork. Anything else is foolish as you might have noticed." Haruno said.

Of course she realized, she had slipped that moment yet again, but what would it have mattered in the end. Sakura would take over again and destroy all of his suspicions with a well-timed "Sasuke-kuuuuun".

 _You have a lot of confidence in me. Maybe you should your appreciation by not killing all my hard work!_

Sasuke, though still surprised, followed her. At the moment her behavior was somewhat fishy but he ignored it in favor of following her. He could find out what was wrong later.

"Careful, Naruto has placed some traps. We´re going to lure Sensei here. Plan´s not finished yet, so you might as well give some input as to how you´re going to help this operation."

In the end they didn´t succeed. Far from it. But their display of (however begrudgingly in the beginning) teamwork forced Kakashi to let them pass.

He of course noticed how she had simply changed personalities right in the beginning. Or that his genjutsu hadn´t fazed her in the slightest.

She didn´t care. She would establish herself as the mission persona while Sakura could have her usual life. At least no one would question it then if she took over in dire situations.

It wasn´t until their first C- Rank that she took over their body again.

 _You know I could handle it._

She saw the puddle from quite a while.

 **I know. But I wanna take over for a while again. You could sleep for a change.**

"Kakashi-sensei."

 _Naah. This is gonna be good. We both know that. I wouldn´t miss you fucking up for the world._

Hearing her serious tone and feeling her change of demeanor he looked up from his book.

"Yes. I see. Good job for noticing."

 **I´m not gonna fuck it up and you know that.**

Sasuke who wasn´t quite used to her changes, not as Naruto who had witnessed them a few times by now, was instantly tense.

"Noticing what?"

The battle was over shortly.

Naruto had instantly thrown himself before their charge and Sasuke had engaged one of them in fight. The second one thought that Sakura would be easy prey to pick on.

Oh boy was he wrong.

It was a testament for his incompetence that she was able to dodge his attack gracefully and slip behind him like she did. She snapped his neck. Even if she had never stopped training herself, or having tai chi lessons, it shouldn´t have been that easy. He was pathetic and underestimating her to a painful degree. It had been his death in the end.

 _Not to kill the mood but. I was right, you fucked it up. Also, it would be really nice if you didn´t kill people while everybody is watching. It is really hard to explain that away._

It took less than a second and when Kakashi appeared to finish the first one off she had already finished patting the second one's body down, and hidden the forbidden scroll she knew he was carrying with him.

 _Look at Naruto, he is shocked._

 **I can see that Sa-chan. It was just, I didn´t want them to get hurt, so I acted on impulse.**

 _Well, dumbass, tell me how I´m supposed to explain that? He looks like he is about to cry._

Truth be told, he was not far away from crying. Sakura took it as her clue to take over and walked over to him to pat on his back.

"Hey Naruto, it´s ok- they we´re trying to kill us. We´re ninja, remember, we sometimes have to kill."

He turned his big blue eyes towards her and sniffed.

"But Sakura-chan how can you be so calm about this?"

 **Dangerous, he is about to ask whether it was our first kill. Intercept!**

"I don´t know Naruto, I just…"

Sakura made it so that their eyes turned to the ground, let them water a bit, contorting their face guiltily and made their voice wavering when she answered.

"I-I was just… I … I just wanted to keep you all safe,", Sakura whispered, putting a cherry on top by slightly trembling as she confessed it.

 **They all bought it. Even Kakashi. I´m so proud of you.**

 _I should become an actress. And the best thing is, it isn´t even a lie._

 **No, you just made us appear much more emotional than we actually are.**

 _Can´t help that you´re emotionally vacant._

 **… Like you are better**

 _At least I don´t let them know that I don´t care._

 **Isn´t that what sociopaths do?**

 _Fuck you._

Kakashi who had watched with excellently hidden interest turned to Tazuna then, the cause for the Kiri nin to attack them. The man, still staring at the corpses on the ground was white as snow. He shuddered before he lifted his gaze and was instantly pinned into a corner by Kakashi´s single eyed stare.

"I´m really interested why they were so intent on killing us Tazuna-san?", the jounin inquired, his eye dangerously narrowed and his chin slightly bend forward.

It was then that the rest of them uncovered what she knew from the beginning. Tazuna the bridge builder had been lying about the possible threats on their mission because he didn't have enough money to pay them properly.

They decided to go through with it anyway.

And promptly encountered Zabuza later that day.

 _I told you, didn´t I?_

 **Oh come on. It was a given. And apart from that. This time, it´s not me who is fucking shit up!**

When the mist became thicker and thicker until her teammates weren´t able to see anything anymore, so she hung back, realizing that seeing Zabuza through the mist was connected to her Soul Seeing Eyes. She fell into a battle stance and readied a kunai and some shuriken. It was easier to keep an eye on everything from where she stood before Tazuna.

Her teammates then engaged in battle and Haruno kept her position before their charge even when Kakashi was trapped in the water prison jutsu. It gave her to means to kill two water clones discreetly before Kakashi could spot them in the mist. Because he was looking, and she had already given herself away too much with the demon brothers.

The clones didn´t see it coming. She then concentrated on Zabuza, who was grinning at her through his bandages. She stifled the urge to roll her eyes at him. Yes, Kakashi was inside of Zabuza's water prison, but that man was a renown genius. His bingo book entry stated "kill on sight". Zabuza may have been a swordsman of the mist but her Sensei had fought a war when he was only 8. Their respective skill levels were miles apart. The only reason the fight was still on was because Kakashi wanted to get a feeling for his genin and their reaction to possible death.

"Were you lucky, pinky, or was that actual skill right there?"

Zabuza smirked at her then, knowing she had killed the clones with her shuriken. It was a good thing that her sensei was too preoccupied with watching Naruto and Sasuke's attack, to pay attention to Zabuza's words.

She didn´t grace him with an answer, it would only have served to bring the attention back to her. Kakashi, having been freed from his cell by the boys and left without an excuse to monitor the fight any longer, then began to fight Zabuza in earnest, dealing with him rather quickly by making use of his ill-fitted Sharingan. It was over in a flash and just before he could kill Zabuza, a little boy posing as hunter nin interceded.

Haruno let them proceed, after making sure Kakashi had noticed even in his weakened state. Only when Haku left, did he dare to give in and fall to his knees. It was remarkable how long he had been able to use the Sharingan considering it wasn't his to begin with and therefore swallowed huge amounts of chakra. She wondered for a second why nobody fixed it, now that the Uchiha were all dead and no clan leader could object.

 _He´s easier to control that way plus you don't want to make him too strong._

 **Yes, I suppose so. There isn't much that binds him to the village, if you look at it from a superior officer's point.**

Two days later they arrived at Tazuna's house relatively healthy, except for Kakashi who was suffering from chakra exhaustion. The boys had carried him and Haruno had kept two eyes firmly on their surroundings. It had been a quite exhausting ordeal for all of them. Sakura and Haruno had been awake in turns and their body hadn´t slept since they started their mission three days ago.

After they had put their Sensei into a bed Haruno excused herself despite her fatigue, saying she wanted to scout the surroundings and left before anyone could say something.

Haruno´s legs lead her to the shore, where she sat down for a second, collecting herself and breathing the sea air in. It had been a long three days. She meditated for some time then before she fished the forbidden scroll out of her clothes.

 **Kinjutsu and judging by the seal protecting it from Uzushiogakure. How did the demon brothers come across this gem?**

 _Uzushio isn't far from here? Maybe they scavenged it from the ruins before they came to Wave. How do you know it´s kinjutsu?_

 **It was on his mind when I killed him. He thought he could sell it for a high price on the black market. I´m not sure if it´s actually a kinjutsu but he thought of it as such.**

 _Can you open the seal?_

 **No. Not here, I need to look at that one reference text before. I could destroy scroll if I made one mistake.**

 _So you gonna try water walking now or what?_

 **Seriously Sa-chan. Fuck off. I´m tired, everything takes a little longer ok?**

She went to the shore and slipped out of her sandals before she walked in a step. The water was cold but refreshing. The way her toes curled in the sand was relaxing. She would need be careful not to fall asleep.

 _Yeah dumbass. And you wonder why I want to have pauses sometimes. Your workout regimen is easily as bad as Gai-sensei's, maybe even worse since you don't understand the need for downtimes, or sleep for that matter._

 **We can't afford any downtime.**

Haruno had read about water walking in the various books and scrolls she had already consumed on chakra theory, but hadn't tried it at home yet. It was a good opportunity for her. Slowly she lifted her left foot to hover over the water. Then she circulated her chakra to it and carefully probed the surface only to have her foot dive into the water again.

 _I was afraid you would say that. Try again, but this time more flowing, also more chakra. This isn´t a wooden floor. Water keeps moving._

 **Aaaww you care.**

Even so, she did try again like Sakura had suggested and it nearly worked. She nearly stood on it for a second before she lost her footing and fell into the water.

 _See. I´m a genius. Let´s continue until we can walk smoothly and go to sleep. It should be easy to keep awake considering we're drenched._

 **We might get a cold though.**

They did get a small cold. When they woke up the following noon their throat hurt and their nose was stuffed. Nobody had woken them and when Sakura surveyed the room only Kakashi was left. He was still sleeping. Haruno was still asleep, too, the strain of being awake so long had exhausted her. She would nap until Sakura woke her and Sakura felt like she could let her rest a little more.

The minute she stood up from the futon she realized what a horrible mistake she had allowed the day before. Their muscles were sore and every movement hurt. Even stretching did little to help with the stiffness.

"Great…"

It probably wouldn´t hurt to sleep just a little longer. Even Haruno couldn't argue with that.

"Sakuraaaaa!"

With a bang both Sakura and Haruno were awake at once. Within their first movement they grabbed the kunai beneath their pillow and jumped to their feet assuming a fighting stance, the kunai millimeters from Naruto's throat.

"Whoaah Sakura, it's ok it's me, Naruto. I forgot that you don´t like to be woken like that."

Once their mind registered it wasn't in fact an enemy, they immediately calmed down and lowered their kunai. Naruto came into the focus of her eyes. He felt really bad for making her jump like this, but was simultaneously impressed by how fast she had been.

"Hey, Naruto. What´s up?", Sakura said with a small huff.

"Kakashi-sensei sent me to fetch you. He said you slept long enough, you know I protested because I know you´ve been awake the past three days but he didn't believe me. So, I will wait downstairs ok?"

Sakura let out a sigh and nodded.

 _So when are you gonna take over again?_

 **Later.**

"Thank you Naruto."

Sakura dressed them in their signature red dress and put their hair into a bun.

 **We need to look into more levelheaded clothing, I know we agreed this would be great for our cover, but in life or death situations it´s really impractical.**

 _I´m thinking about it. Give me 2 hours with Hinata and the pay for this mission._

 **Mercy?**

 _No._

Kakashi had summoned them, to let them walk on trees and since Haruno had managed water walking, with some help from Sakura the day before, it wasn´t a challenge for them. It also wasn´t, however, a skill they were comfortable showing off right away, so Sakura gave herself an hour, during which Haruno meditated before she even channeled chakra to their feet. Then she stumbled up the tree. As Haruno expected, after that Kakashi let them go.

It was evident that he wasn´t really expecting much from them, obvious even without Haruno´s gift. She could see the pity in Tazuna´s mind after he figured it out. The only thing Kakashi considered them good at was genjutsu, book smarts and maybe chakra control. Apart from that he didn´t think they´d ever surpass chunin level. Even if he acknowledged, they were able to don a no-nonsense attitude sometimes (which was how he referred to Haruno taking over) he hadn´t really seen how Haruno had killed the demon brother and assumed it was sheer dumb luck.

That made her angry but only just so, and she went to the bridge to guard Tazuna.

Arriving there she made an excuse saying she needed to check underneath the bridge, where she made two shadow clones, having learned the technique from Naruto just after graduation, and posted one of them on the bridge and one of them beneath it.

She herself walked over the water until she was out of earshot and knelt down. It was harder to channel chakra into the knees. Or anywhere that wasn´t her hands or feet for that matter, so she worked on that. It couldn´t hurt to be able to release chakra from everywhere in her body.

 _Why in the world, please the water is cold!_

 **Chakra strengthens muscles, bones and tissue remember? If we´re able to release it everywhere we might get our skin to become impenetrable. And even if not, I prefer to be able to control every aspect of our body, rather than just ignore this.**

 _But why in the middle of the fucking sea?_

She knew that Tazuna was leaving when her under the bridge clone dispelled and it´s knowledge returned to her. The possibilities of training with those clones were insane. It was ridiculous. She could let one or more of them learn theory or meditate while her real body did taijutsu training. One of them was in the village, stealing secrets and keeping tabs on Danzo. He knew something about her but she only caught glimpses of him every now and then, so she didn´t know very much. But even if her innate chakra pool was not as big as Naruto´s or Sasuke´s she was able to make 5 at a time without outright fainting. It was certainly enough. Especially since she widened her reservoir every day.

Kakashi accompanied her to the bridge the next day, making her training more difficult but not impossible. She just meditated to enhance her chakra pool, while Sakura was tasked with circulation and control exercises.

They day after that they were attacked.

Sasuke accompanied them this time, since he had been able to tree walk the day before and he engaged Haku directly. To say it was stupid would be an understatement. Haku´s kekkei genkei paired with his skill were to much fur Sasuke to handle.

Haruno stayed back, taking care of their charge, since Haku didn´t intend to actually kill Sasuke.

Kakashi fought Zabuza, but both of them were not fully paying attention as each of them was keeping an eye on their respective students. Zabuza not as much as Kakashi, but their sensei couldn´t know that Haku didn´t aim to kill, rather than incapacitate, nor did he know the exact skillset or level Haku was fighting on.

Then Naruto appeared to save the day it all went horribly wrong. Sasuke was far from dying when Naruto showed up, but he looked like death twice warmed over, so it was an easy mistake to make. Unfortunate for Haku, whose ice melted when Naruto's rage cracked the seal on his belly and allowed him to utilize Kurama´s chakra.

In the end it wasn't however Naruto who killed Haku. It was Kakashi.

Haku had thrown himself between his mentor and Kakashi´s deadly chidori. . She knew he was precious, innocent and just getting over his loneliness. It was a terrible waste. Not to mention that Kakashi was forcibly reminded of his dead friend Rin.

Zabuza now ultimately pissed off, mowed Gato and his talentless goons down with only a kunai in his mouth.. Haruno watched in dark satisfaction as the man who was responsible for everything was killed. Although, seeing Zabuza die made her twitch.

She let Sakura continue managing their body after that.

After having seen her face upon Gato´s death, their sensei was slightly suspicions. They would keep it that way.

 _And I have to do the hard work, typical of you Ha-chan._

 **Sa-chan. You and I both know that you enjoy to play with their suspicion.**

 _I can practically smell that psych eval coming our way._

Just like every day, Sarutobi sat behind his desk, his hands folded and his torso leaning slightly forward.

As per usual he held his face carefully blank of his actual emotions, having put on a plastic smile for the three genin that stood in front of him with their jounin-instructor behind them. Kakashi wouldn´t be fooled since he wore that smile himself, but Sarutobi liked to think each and every of his ninja beneath jounin level considered it a grandfatherly smile. He, however, felt far from smiling at all.

Team 7 had just returned from wave and their report gave him a severe headache. A fresh genin team on an A-rank mission. The paperwork would kill him. Besides that, there were so many ways that this could have gone south. And if it had, the Kyubi container, the last Uchiha and one of his best anbu- operatives could have died. Why again did he think it was a good idea to put them all on a team? Ah right, because Kakashi was the best Anbu- operative he had and needed to ensure the safety of both Naruto and the Uchiha boy, apart from the fact that Kakashi also had the Sharingan and could help the boy train it. There had been so many logical reasons to put them on a team together, but just as many to not do it. In the end the council had decided. Sarutobi was almost certain that Danzo had his hands in this one, but then again Danzo had his hands in everything.

"And then Sakura-chan killed this missing nin guy in one move! She was awesome, but also a bit scary,", Naruto chirped in between his musing, making Sarutobi acutely aware of the constant sting the girl caused in his brain.

Sakura Haruno. The reports he received about her, presented her mostly as a liability. She had been seen in the library, reading the same academy books over and over, her intelligence was only book smarts and the only thing she was above average was chakra control that didn't help her much with ninjutsu, since she tired easily and didn't have much chakra to begin with, her taijutsu skills appeared to be below average for her age group, a result of her lacking stamina and speed both. All together rather a useless genin. And yet…

And yet now and again something didn't add up. Her entrance exams had indicated a great intellect. It also appeared as if she had been getting tai chi lessons for seven years now and her Chunin instructor had never seen her use any of it. Kakashi had submitted a report, mentioning a sudden change in personality during his first test. And now she had supposedly killed a Kiri nin within seconds without batting an eyelash. He made a mental note to order Kakashi to look into it and maybe assign an Anbu to shadow her. He was almost certain that she dumbed herself down, but to which extent, he couldn't say. Either way, it was certainly suspicious. Especially since it had been per Danzo´s suggestion that he put her on this team. And he was sure that if he had those files on her, Danzo had them too and then probably some.

 **Sakura?**

 _Hmn?_

 **We need to be careful. Danzo seems to have taken an interest into us, and Sarutobi is getting suspicious.**

 _I told you the killing wasn't a smart idea_.

 **Yeah I know.**

 _Do you have a plan or?_

 **I´m thinking about it.**

They were 13, when Haruno saw the being called Zetsu the first time. He was hiding in the shadows a few blocks away from the Hokage's office.

13, when she knew about the eye of the moon plan.

13, when she took over and approached him, were he was in the shadows and told him as much.

"I want in. The eye of the moon plan. I want to help."

Zetsu, who had seen her coming his way but never thought she would notice him, stared at her in absolute disbelief.

 _„You can see me? No, wait. More important. How do you know about that?_ ", he said readying himself to pounce and kill her on the spot.

„I see the truth. I see humanity and I see the tiny spark of will that keeps you going. I can see the plan on the surface of your splintered soul. Get Kaguya back. Trap everyone in an eternal Tsukuyomi. I know that´s the only way to make everyone happy. To get rid of the pain. So I want to help. "

Zetsu eyed this little human. She appeared earnest. But she was weak.

„I understand, ", she said and nodded when he was about to answer.

„I will get stronger and prove my worth. Then you´ll decide. "

With that she marched back to whence she came from.

Never once in his entire existence was he so utterly surprised.

„ _She sure is something this girl, we didn´t even answer her request_ , ", his white side remarked.

„ **No. We didn´t need to. She knew our answer before we could say a word. "**

In the back of Haruno´s mind however Sakura sat whispering to herself:

 _But do we really want that?_


	2. Chapter 2

"So what about this one Sakura-chan?" Hinata suggested holding a bright red shirt in her hands. She had been excited when Sakura had asked her whether she'd like to go shopping together.

"I want to be stealthier, so red might not the right color, but I like the design!" Sakura grinned when she saw Hinata smile happily. She had gained more confidence in the last year, giving her opinion sometimes and not fainting anymore when Naruto talked to her.

Sakura spotted a sleeveless lavender dress. It would work perfectly with the brown leather jacket Hinata was eying yearningly.

"I like this one, Hinata. It would suit your eyes. And with that jacket to your left..."

It was cute how Hinata nearly jumped at the mention of that jacket. She steeled herself and turned towards Sakura, shaking her head.

"I-I I´m not sure, Sakura-chan. This is supposed to be your shopping trip, you said you needed a new outfit for the chunin exams. I can come here another time and..."

"You're talking nonsense Hinata, we can both shop at the same time, and you know that. What is the problem?"

"I want to move out of the compound."

Sakura had to do a double take. It took her about 5 seconds to process what Hinata had said. She hadn't expected this from Hinata this early.

"Wow, congratulations! But may I ask why now?"

Hinata looked down, embarrassed, and crossed her arms.

"I´ve been thinking about it for some time. Since my sister beat me I'm not the heiress anymore. I want to change that in the future, because I have plans. Right now, my lowered status plays into my hands, they won't be able to keep me from leaving and I need to leave the compound if I want to grow. I don't want to depend on my clan's money or influence. If I make chunin in the exams, I would be able to move out right away but I'm not betting on that. My goal is to move into my own flat, and I'm saving up for that right now, so I can't buy new clothes."

Sakura knew about that of course, having been informed by Haruno that Hinata was breaking away from her clan little by little. They had been pondering how to help Hinata with her struggle, but wanted her to tell them herself in her own time. And Hinata had come to her much sooner than expected.

"Have you thought about sharing a flat with someone, that would minimize costs, you know?" Sakura started, knowing exactly where she was going with it. Hinata immediately caught on.

"Are you offering? I-I mean, I know that you and your parents have a rather frosty relationship, but I thought, that… didn't you say you didn't care?"

Smiling, Sakura stepped closer, putting the dress in Hinata's hands and nodding towards a changing room.

"Go on, roomie. Let's see if it fits. I need a present for you when you do exceptionally well at the chunin exams."

"I would object, you know, if I didn't know that you use your parent´s wealth without reservation," Hinata quipped and left her there quietly laughing to herself.

 **I like the green one.**

 _I hate the green one._

 **I know, but it's stealthy. Look at it. The dark green is gonna cut our visibility. And get a black bandana while you´re at it. Our hair is too obvious.**

 _And here I am, distinctly remembering that you didn't want to go shopping with me and Hinata._

 **Uh. Yes?**

 _You're massively annoying, you know?_

 **Thanks. You too.**

 _Are we asking Hinata to use the byakugan on us?_

 **Tomorrow maybe. Although I want to know how obvious the seals are. I tried to paint them as small as possible but the Hyuga are probably gonna see them either way. Unless I find a way to cloak it from their eyes, I see little chance for our continued invisibility from the upper ranks.**

 _Do we need to be completely invisible? Even if they flag us as potentially hostile, there is no way we wouldn't know, and now we have a goal. A goal that requires us to defect at our earliest convenience anyway. It's not like they'd ever be able to know our complete skill set, because nobody, and I mean literally nobody, reckons there is two of us. In any case, we should ask her to take a look, maybe she could give you some help with the seals. I'm pretty sure actually that there are seals that bar the byakugan from looking through a surface, because otherwise life in the compound must be pretty uncomfortable._

 **Wow thank you Sa-chan, it's not like I see enough sex in other people's thoughts or something. … Fine I'll ask her now.**

Still shaking their head, Haruno picked the leather jacket and walked over to the changing cabins to inspect how the dress fit Hinata.

"It's a little short, don't you think?"

Knowing Ino, just above the knee did not register as short to Haruno and Sakura.

"You could wear your trousers underneath? I think it's lovely. Here put this on… Perfect!"

Hinata looked at herself in the mirror and nodded.

"Hinata, I've been meaning to ask you…", Haruno started, fidgeting with her hands, "whether you could use your eyes to look at me, because I was wondering whether my seals are obvious to someone with the byakugan."

Hinata smiled and nodded.

"Sure, but let´s do that on the training ground, ok? It would be fairly noticeable if I did it here and now."

 _Very good Ha-chan_.

"It would be my pleasure. I found a scroll for lightning jutsu I want you to look at. It will be a good skill during the exams, nobody is going to expect to you to command lightning."

Hinata was visibly confused.

"Lightning? Are you sure? I have no idea what my nature is. Also, there are plenty of clan jutsu I should learn… But I guess that you're probably right about this, as always. Nobody expects an elemental jutsu from a Hyuga, right?"

Haruno grinned through her teeth.

"Exactly."

_

The chunin exams were impending and Haruno had taken up the habit to station a clone at the gates to look at the newcomers. Knowledge was power after all. And power was what she needed to help the being Zetsu. It was one of the reasons she trained in the morning with Maito Gai-Sensei now. Sakura and her had agreed that when Danzo already knew about them, it didn't matter anymore if she acted a little suspicious. Lethargic as Kakashi was, he had yet to pick up on it and Gai-Sensei had promised her not to tell him.

She had also improved the weight seal. Now the weight of it spread out evenly all over her body and all her muscles were trained in equal proportions. She was proud of herself. The scrolls on sealing she had access to in the library were all rudimentary. She still couldn't just waltz into the jonin section, which proved to be a severe disadvantage in trying to unseal the scroll from the demon brothers. She came back to it every now and then, just like her and Sakura reread the scrolls of their ancestors habitually, but so far nothing had come of it.

As for their ancestors' scrolls, Sakura had first suspected that they were written in code and after some research Haruno had to agree, but they were still unable to decode them.

It was only thanks to the ravens who brought her scrolls on numerous subjects every now and then in exchange for information and treats, that she had finally found a way to put compressed seals on her body. Not only had it taken her months of study, but each seal took a good chunk of chakra to create, especially the storage seals.

Nobody, apart from a few Hyuga maybe, had noticed that. Somehow nobody was expecting anything from Sakura Haruno, the civilian girl. Everything she accomplished, that was remotely competent, resulted in surprised eyebrow lifting. Apart from the Hokage and a few other individuals, nobody even suspected she had hidden talents.

While Haruno had recognized this to be an advantage, Sakura was sulking. She would have liked a little more acknowledgement. Especially since they weren't even putting that much effort into seeming incompetent anymore. But nobody really noticed. Even so, they agreed that it was better for them in the long run if everybody underestimated them.

 _I still don't have to like it._

 **It's certainly easier like that, rather than being hailed a genius or something.**

Three days before the exams Sabaku no Gaara entered the village with his two siblings and a Jounin sensei. Another lonely broken boy on the verge of insanity. His siblings were scared shitless. They knew what would happen if he lost control.

He too, was a Jinjuriki, just like Naruto, but his seal was weaker, cruder in execution. She could see the ill intent of Shukaku spilling through the seal on his stomach. Haruno, even if she had only ever seen Naruto's seal, was sure that given some more time to study it and a few more reference texts, she would have been able to improve the seal. Of course there wouldn't be any opportunity to do that, but a girl could dream.

They were planning to attack Konoha during the exams with the help of Orochimaru. Their primary objective was to kill as many as possible.

Haruno was appalled mainly. She expected this from humans by now. At first she decided to do nothing about it, but when Orochimaru entered the village and his plan to get a hold of Sasuke and by extension, his Sharingan, her resolution began to crack. It didn't help that Sakura nagged at her in the back of their mind.

Orochimaru plans to kill the Hokage. _Crack._

He's going to destroy all of the village if he can. _Crack._

Our friends may die because of this. _**Crack.**_

But then a young girl, Uzumaki Karin, was dragged into the village behind Orochimaru and Haruno snapped. The clone dissolved.

The information came to her original during a rather unfortunate time.

It was midday and they were currently training to lie still on the river under the red bridge, where their team met, while simultaneously widening their reserve and trying to sense the world around them. It was easier than it sounded considering Haruno let Sakura concentrate on the water lying while she circulated the rest of their chakra. It was good for Haruno to know that she could trust Sakura. That she could rely on her abilities. They had started to communicate with each other more often after the wave debacle.

Naruto and Sasuke were trying to water walk and nearly succeeding.

It was a really inconvenient moment.

They didn't even fall into the water. That would not have been a problem. They were already soaked. No. Haruno exploded the water around her in her sheer anger and disappointment. Sakura flinched and disappeared to the back of their mind. Their clothes hung in rags on their body, barely covering it. If the boys had looked closely, they would have seen the weight seal on her stomach.

"Woah, Sakura, everything ok? Is there something I can do to, uhm, help? Do you want my jacket? " Naruto asked when he reached her.

She had already steadied herself on the water and was marching in angry strides towards the bank.

"I´m fine. Don´t worry Naruto, Sasuke. I'll be back, I'll just get changed at home. "

With that she left them flabbergasted on the shore. She couldn't sense anything, but she was positive there were Anbu following her now. But even if she couldn't feel them, she was convinced there had to be at least some. Her chakra had spiked unnaturally and the wet remains of her dress clung to her body while she angrily marched through the street of Konoha three days before the chunin exams. It would have been a grave oversight if they hadn´t checked on her.

When she entered her home and her mother greeted her stiffly, Haruno ignored her. She walked up into her room, screamed into her pillow, got rid of her rags and showered. After that she put on some training garb and closed her door firmly. There were always special preparations to make when she summoned a raven to make sure nobody knew they were her summons.

She closed the blinds and activated the soundproof and aura suppression seal on in her bookshelf. Then she bit her thumb and hit the ground.

"Haruno. How can I be of assistance today? "

A small black raven appeared in front of her, inclined his head towards her and adopted an attentive pose.

"Hugin, I need you to fly to the Hokage's office and relay the following message to the Hokage and only him.

Orochimaru is in the village. He plans to attack with his Suna allies during the Chunin Exams. He also plans to kill the Hokage. Further information indicates he will try to steal the Sharingan by baiting Uchiha Sasuke with power. Sabaku no Gaara is the one-tails Jinjuriki. The Sandaime Kazekage is dead and one of Orochimaru's minions is posing for him. Karin Uzumaki is being mistreated and used by Orochimaru, he will try to experiment on her after the chunin exams. Help her. End of message. "

The old raven nodded in understanding.

"This information is also good payment. You will not need to pay anything else for my service this time. Is there anything else? "

"Yes. There is something else. I need one or two of you to follow Orochimaru. He is disguised as a Kusagakure Jounin sensei. Report any suspicious movement to me, please. Apart from that, do not let the Hokage know this message comes from me. As always, I trust your secrecy, Hugin. "

"As you wish Haruno. I will take my leave now. "

With that the raven disappeared in puff of smoke. Haruno leaned back on her feet and massaged her temples. There was no way this wouldn't bite them in the ass. She was just glad that she had read up on interrogation techniques (namely torture) and how to avoid feeling the pain. It wouldn't save her from the Yamanaka´s jutsu but at least she was prepared for the other things.

Her sudden outburst under the bridge had left her weary. She could feel a solid headache building behind their skull. Sakura finally dared to leave her hiding place and gingerly asked her whether she was ok.

 **It´s ok Sa-chan. I'm fine, it's just… this will have repercussions for us. Even if we hadn't taken action, there will be consequences and I'm sure we won't like them.**

 _Shall I take over for today and you rest?_

 **No, thank you. I can't rest now. I need to send a new clone to the gate and make sure we don't overlook anything. It's sweet of you to offer though.**

 _Tell me, if you need anything Ha-chan I'll gladly help. I might not see everything you do, but your goal is my goal._

 **Thank you. I will. I just need a few minutes.**

They arrived on training ground 3 in the early afternoon. It would have had taken her only 20 minutes to her house and back, but after summoning Hugin they had taken half an hour to calm down. So when they arrived at the bridge Naruto and Sasuke were already gone, which meant Kakashi had appeared during her absence. Haruno had given Sakura reign over their body once again and Sakura liked to play it dramatic.

"Ah Kakashi-sensei! I´m sooo sorry. There was something I had to do at home, so I ran there. I´m so sorry it took me so long!"

He had quipped his visible eyebrow but said nothing about it. It wasn't like he missed her chakra slipping. Ever since their C-rank he had shadowed her every now and then, having been instructed to do so by the Hokage, but also because of his own interest. So far he hadn't been able to spot interesting behavior, which Haruno was really smug about, since they didn't really try to hide it anymore. Although in her pettiness Haruno sent Kakashi on a merry chase after a shadow clone every morning. It was a great source of amusement to her.

Their boys were already sparring with each other and they stood awkwardly next to Kakashi and watched. Haruno was proud how much Naruto had improved. She was sure he would one day achieve his dream to become Hokage. Not that it would matter, though. They would all be trapped in an eternal genjutsu and all their dreams would come true anyway. Sakura didn't like that train of thought too much and she let their shoulders sag, which Kakashi detected.

"What's the matter Sakura-chan? "

Sakura, bless her, was a fantastic liar.

"Oh, it's just, Sensei, I don't feel like I can keep up with my teammates. "

He believed her. Haruno snickered inwardly. He was underestimating them, just like they planned.

 **You're awesome, Sa-chan.**

 _I know, Ha-chan. I'm an extraordinary actor._

"You are yourself, Sakura-chan. You don't have to be like your teammates. "

(Of course you are weaker. Naruto is host to a monster and Sasuke is a monster created by years of Uchiha incest. Nobody expects you to succeed with this team. I'm not even sure what Sarutobi sees in you.)

Haruno ignored it. She knew he wasn't expecting her to be strong. Sakura, however, was slightly affronted. Even with their misdirection in place, Kakashi should have noticed that her muscles were more defined or that her chakra had increased significantly.

"So, are we going to participate in the Chunin exams Sensei?"

They knew they were. Kakashi had been briefed by the Hokage already about the mysterious message he had received. They were on high alert but nobody could figure out who sent that message since the only known person to have raven summons was Uchiha Itachi. And nobody except for the Hokage, the elders, the toad sage and Haruno Sakura would ever know, that Itachi had acted on orders that night.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, how come you know about it? Did you have a run in with foreign ninja, too?"

"No, but unlike some others I like to be informed."

"I see."

(I didn't think you had the brains for that. I thought you were just book smart?)

_-

Haruno and Sakura agreed that letting Team Seven participate in the exam was a very bad idea. Nevertheless, they turned up well rested three days later at the academy, ready to kick ass. They had kept the obvious red qipao but underneath it they wore tight black pants and a long-sleeved black shirt, a braid visible on their shoulder. The weight seal was still on their stomach but some more seals had accumulated all over their body. Some of them were storage seals, in one were a few bandages and high-percentage alcohol, one held three blankets and extra clothing and they even had one with food and water underneath their knee pad. The one with weapons was on their right wrist hidden by a bandage. They were prepared.

Naruto and Sasuke however, were painfully unprepared. Due to her foreseeing this she had packed emergency backpacks for both the boys filled with everything they might need during the practical test.

The boys waited for them at the door and together they walked up the stairs towards the written exam. Haruno could feel the genjutsu before she could even see it.

 **I'm taking over for a while.**

Since her approach to such things was to ignore them, she grabbed Naruto and Sasuke by their shoulders and nodded towards the sign on the door.

"Just follow me."

Having procured her teammates´ attention, she continued up the stairs ignoring Kotetsu and Izumo´s genjutsu as well as their query as to where they were heading.

Kakashi was waiting for them in the exam room and revealed to Naruto and Sasuke, that they all needed to show up as to participate as a team. She inwardly rolled her eyes at them.

 _Ha-chan. They are not stupid just because they fall for Kakashi-sensei. He is nearly as good at lying as me._

 **I know, I should know better. But this farce of an exam is grating on my nerves.**

 _We are well prepared. There is literally nothing that can surprise us. There are two silence seals on us. Another one that suppresses the presence of our chakra and one that stores some extra chakra should we run low. And we have sealing tint in the storage on our elbow. The only ones who are able to see all the seals are Hinata and her cousin._

 **I´m not happy with that and you know it. And the chakra storage is a far cry from the yin seal. I still need to work on it.**

"Neee, Sakura-chan, are you listening?"

Both their attention turned back to the room.

"I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei, I must have spaced out."

"I just wished you good luck." (I know, you'll need it.)

"Thank you."

She turned away and walked towards the desk to finish her registration. On the way there, she noticed Kabuto Yakushi. Another sleeper of Orochimaru, but by far the most skillful one. Haruno was getting really sick of it.

The exam began and they were appalled. The questions were so unbelievably easy. It was ridiculous. Sakura solved the whole thing on her own, Haruno didn't help at all. They were done in under 20 minutes and then just waited. It annoyed them greatly that they couldn't summon Hugin to get him to deliver a full list of Orochimaru's operatives to the Hokage. But all that would have to wait until they were in the forest of death and out of everyone's sight.

Halfway through the exam they blocked Ino´s sudden attempt to invade their mind with relative ease and it surprised them. Behind them the could hear Ino moan in distress. It must have been painful for her jutsu to end so rapidly.

 **How did we do that?**

 _I don't know._

 **She was in our mind space and you kicked her out Sa-chan. Before she could see anything.**

 _I guess. I still have no idea what I did. I know what you´re thinking. You want me to train so that when someone proficient in this technique tries to interrogate us they won't come in._

 **Yes.**

 _We could reconcile with Ino, that crush on Sasuke is really annoying you know. I really hate playing that, and I'm not sure if it really works in our favor. He despises us when we're in fangirl mode._

 **You're right, you can tone it down. But slowly. Sasuke is still suspicious of us. He knows that we're better and smarter than we let on. It makes him furious.**

 _Ok, got it Ha-chan._

A giant ruckus pulled her out of her thoughts when Ibiki Morino announced the last question of the test.

 **We really need to stop spacing out like this.**

"I´m never gonna back down. One day I'm gonna be Hokage, believe it!

Everybody except maybe for Hinata rolled their eyes but before any of the proctors could say anything Sakura quietly cut in.

"Naruto. Sit down."

It had the desired effect. Naruto immediately sat down, excused himself for causing a commotion and chanced a look towards them to check whether he had understood them correctly.

They nodded once and then returned their attention back to Morino who had watched the exchange with something akin to wonder on his face. He had dealt with Naruto during his rascal days in the academy more than once.

Then the exams proceeded. Mitarashi Anko, a special jounin, who was still frowned upon by the elders because she had been Orochimaru's pupil, emerged through a window and ordered them to the forest of death.

The name was earned, Haruno supposed.

Their first day on training ground 44 ended without any major disturbances, unlike the nickname had suggested. They had decided to make haste and lurk close to the tower where they would try to lure other teams into one of Naruto´s infamous trapped areas. Sakura had sensed someone in the distance, but they didn't meet any of the other teams.

So far their plan had worked out fantastically. Their camp was only two miles from the tower in the middle of the forest. They hid in the center of the trapped area underneath a giant root. All three of them had agreed that a fire was a bad idea. None of them had brought bedrolls or food and since Haruno and Sakura agreed that the goods inside the seals would only be used in case of emergency, Sakura collected a few berries she knew to be edible. They concealed their camp as well as possible and then they just waited.

Nothing happened, night came and Haruno took over. She ordered the boys to sleep, telling them that she'd take care of the first watch. After all, she had some messages to send and some clothing changes to make. The later one was done easily. She ripped the red qipao off and put it in a storage seal.

 _It's a shame, red really is our colour._

 **Yes, maybe. But not in the middle of the fucking forest.**

The second one was a little trickier. Haruno activated the silence seals on her shoulders and the aura suppression one. Then she summoned Hugin.

"Sakura-san. What can I do for you?"

A great white raven towered in front of them. They had talked to her the first time they summoned a raven. She was their leader. The oldest and wisest raven of them all. She had even known their great- great-grandfather.

"Fureya-sama. I didn't expect you to answer my call. Is something the matter?"

"I have a favor to ask for. But before that, what can I do for you?"

Haruno waved a small scroll in her hand.

"This is a list of Orochimaru´s associates. I need you to bring it to the Hokage without him suspecting it's me who sent it. I've set up precautions, to make sure this conversation stays a secret."

"I understand. I will send one of the smaller ones to accomplish this task."

With that she waved over the scroll in Haruno´s hands and it was gone.

"Thank you Fureya-sama. What can I do for you in return? It must be something important."

The great raven looked at her intently before bowing her head once in agreement.

"The other contractor. Uchiha Itachi is in need of a doctor. We worry about him. He is a friend of ours. Can you think of a way to help him?"

"I'm not a doctor, Fureya-sama, nor a healer. I only ever read through some scrolls and books. I know there isn't someone else you can think of, but I'm sure I wouldn't be able to do anything right now."

The great raven nodded.

"I know that, little Blossom. The problem is that he won´t go see a doctor. It is in the early stages and I personally requested that he go see a doctor, but he refuses. If he continues like that he will die in a few years. We care for him and won't let that happen. So the favour I´m asking for…"

"You want me to learn medical jutsu and save his life and possibly his eyes."

"Yes. We would of course provide you with all the forbidden and lost knowledge you require for this task. I know that you intend to leave this village behind, sooner or later and if I may say so, nobody looks for corpses or even better, nobody puts bounties on their heads, so if you were to fake your death by using your then obtained knowledge …"

"I understand. I have to admit Fureya-sama, it isn´t a favor as immense as it seemed at first. I was considering learning medical jutsu before. It requires perfect chakra control, which I´ve been told, I have. The occasion simply hasn't occurred yet."

"Then I suppose we have a deal."

"We, do."

Haruno bowed and so did they great raven.

"Goodbye, Sakura-san. May we meet again soon."

"Goodbye Fureya-sama."

It was raining the next day. Naruto had woken them before dawn, just as instructed. They were cold and miserable. The absence of a warming fire had taken a toll on all of them and the appearance of a huge tiger during their sparse berry breakfast had done nothing to remedy their brooding. Haruno especially was annoyed that she couldn't just open her storage seals and get them all decent food, but Sakura insisted, and she wasn't completely wrong about it either, that normal 13 year olds didn't have small improved storage seals all over their body. The sudden disappearance of her red qipao was enough to make Sasuke suspicious. Naruto didn't even notice.

As per habit she created a clone and sent it to hide in the undergrowth.

 _The fight with the tiger will lure opponents to us. Naruto´s lack of control made his chakra spike like a flare._

Naruto and Sasuke were buzzing with excitement, both of them hoping to prove themselves. Naruto in the eyes of the village and Sasuke to himself.

 **Or Orochimaru.**

 _Way to kill the mood._

In the end, nobody came and it was midday when Naruto left camp to scout the area and maybe draw other competitors in their direction.

"Make them believe you are the only one left and have the scroll, ok?"

"Got it, Sakura-chan. I won't let you down. "

"Hn."

They both turned around to look at Sasuke who eyed them with distaste.

"If Sakura had used her talent in genjutsu better, she could have disguised a twig and some leaves to look like a scroll. Then you could lure them here more effectively."

 _Now that I think about it, why haven't we thought of this earlier? We could have hidden our camp better, we could make us appear less suspicious, for kami´s sake we could have lived a much easier life!_

 **I don't know... it never occurred to me. They never felt useful because I see through them even before they are cast. How did I overlook this?**

 _Don´t worry you weren't the only one._

 **I should have realized it. Even Sasuke has.**

"Oi Idiot, Sakura-chan is really good in dismantling genjutsu, don't you look down on her."

"Hmn."

Haruno´s mood didn't improve, especially when half an hour after Naruto headed out, Orochimaru was upon them in the guise of him.

Orochimaru, not trying particularly hard to play his role, recited the password they had agreed on before Naruto left perfectly.

"Imposter. Where is Naruto?" Sasuke, bless his idiotic heart, asked in his complete cluelessness.

 _Take over, I swear to Kami, Ha-chan, if you don't take over right now I'm gonna cry._

 **Got it. Don´t worry. If all else fails I can still call Fureya-sama.**

 _You know that you act too cocky, Ha-chan. You will get us killed._

"Why would you think it's not me?"

Haruno had never been of the particularly patient kind. It was always Sakura who nagged her about keeping it together and not destroying the perfectly useless image she had created. Sakura was however not in the mood for nagging right now, rather she clawed into Haruno´s conscience, begging her to do something for Kami's sake. Haruno slipped into a fighting stance, one she had learned from Gai-sensei and released the weight seal with a sign.

"Quit playing, Orochimaru."

Sasuke shot her a short look as if to ask what the fuck she was talking about, but an evil smile spread over Naruchimaru's lips. It didn't suit him at all. Fortunately, Orochimaru ended his henge there and then, and curtesy of her already calling him by name he ripped the fake skin of the woman´s face he wore off. His reptilian eyes never left her.

"Very well child. Now I´m interested. How do you know about me?"

 _Abort mission. Abort mission! Now he is interested in US. Run for our life!_

He was faster than she had anticipated. In the bat of an eye he was standing in front of her, in all his evil glory, the entirety of his attention seemingly fixated on her. She and her clone both knew it wasn't true, nevertheless she gave it the order to duplicate and collect Sasuke and Naruto and flee.

"I´m not telling you, old man. I´m just not interested in your games. Now quit playing, and state what you came here for."

Haruno´s voice never wavered. She saw that it amused him that she seemed to feel no fear in a moment of near possible death and it intrigued him. He wasn't sure if she was stupid, brave, suicidal, or simply overestimating herself by leagues. And he so wanted to play a little longer. His killing intent intensified, and Sasuke who had previously listened to them intently, froze. His stare glazed over in undiluted panic.

"Now, now. No need to be rude. Tell me, Sakura-chan, how did you know it was me?"

Lie. Lie your ass off. Tell him it was the fucking snakes – they are all around him. Tell him you heard a jonin say it. Tell him anything but the truth! Come on Haruno!

"And how would you know my name?"

He had of course seen her file. He had seen every participant's file to find out if there was someone worth taking besides Sasuke. In his mind, she had been useless, until now.

 **No. I need to keep him interested. Play for time. Our clone has Naruto, and we nearly got Sasuke too. Our only chance is to run.**

 _Sweet Kami. I know you THINK, you know what you're doing. And I hope you're right._

"Tz tz tz, Sakura-chan. I asked first. Besides don't you think someone like me has read up on every possible new asset?"

 _Oh, come on, you ass-crawling snake-fucking shit. I made sure our file was below average! Don't you try to say you were interested when you know exactly that our file is beyond disappointing, because I know it too and I worked hard for it!_

Haruno smirked. This time she didn't bother to hide it. Then she let out a full-blown laugh.

 _Wow, only Ino and Naruto made you do that before. You must find him awfully amusing._

 **He was thinking his attempt was fruitful, that I was stupid enough to believe he was interested from the start. As if that was a compliment for us.**

"You are a terrible liar. My file is below average. Nobody in his right mind would think of me as a promising new asset. Now state your purpose, Orochimaru, or get lost."

A tiny vein throbbed on his forehead and she knew she was running out of time. Luckily for her, her clone chose that moment to snatch away Sasuke and run off full speed in the direction of the tower. In the same moment she moved their body out of the way. Not a second too early. Where she had been milliseconds before was now a huge snake summon now. Haruno ran, her gamble had worked out so far.

 _LEFT!_

 **Got it.**

Following Sakura´s "advice" Haruno flipped to the left, just in time to dodge a volley of kunai aimed at her legs.

"Now, come Sakura-chan, don't you want to stay for the fun?"

"Not exactly!" she pressed out before she dodged another of his volleys, only to be caught by one of his summons. The constrictor wrapped around her too fast to react.

"FUCK!"

Haruno wasn´t one to cry. Not usually. Sakura cried for them from time to time, as to appear normal, but Haruno had not cried a single tear beside the one time she had seen Danzo. But now tears escaped her as the constrictor wrapped itself tighter and tighter around her. A scream of anguish tore through the forest.

It hadn´t been her.

Sasuke had managed to free himself from Orochimaru´s killing intent in the end by cutting himself with a kunai. He was just in time too, since Haruno´s clone, groaning in pain, puffed out of existence shortly after that. The clone that carried Naruto was on the ground when it happened and the small fall woke him.

Haruno craned her neck as far as she could to see what was going on. There wasn´t much she could do now. Orochimaru had ordered the snake to not kill her, yet. So, she hung suspended 5 meters above the ground. If she could wriggle her hands together to form some seals, maybe she could escape.

 _Or maybe you could use your fucking brain. What did we train our chakra pathways for, huh? If you expel enough chakra and make it as sharp as you can, the snake might let go of you._

 **What would I do without you?**

 _Get eaten by snakes apparently._

Haruno, did as she was told by Sakura and nearly regretted it instantly.

The snake, just like the water 4 days earlier, exploded with a gigantic boom.

When she landed on she was hardly able to suppress retching all over the forest floor and wiggling snake parts. It didn't help that she was nearly naked, again.

 _Holy fuck. I didn't see that coming. It's really gross. I'd have puked. I mean the smell alone..._

 **Shut up - there is no time Sa-chan!**

 _40 meters to our right._

 **Thanks.**

Haruno sprinted as fast as she could in her team's direction.

"Too late Sakura-chan," Orochimaru chirped as he gleefully thrust a hand into Naruto´s abdomen. Naruto sagged together as the seal on his belly glowed ominously. She attacked him then - or tried to at least.

But there was no chance for her at all.

 _Yet._

 **Yet.**

"Maybe I should give you a curse mark too, Sakura-chan? It would fit perfectly between the rest of your artwork."

He cocked an eyebrow, eying the numerous seals covering her body. It surprised him more than he liked. Not even the death of his snake had surprised him quite as much.

"No. Thank you," she huffed during her attack, but he blocked the blow to his head with ease.

"I'd rather not." She dodged a kick to her hip only barely by skidding to the side.

 _You could always use the extra chakra from the seal on our back._

"Ha ha ha."

 **Actually, that's a good idea!**

It irritated her to no end that he was enjoying this so thoroughly. When she sidestepped another blow, just getting ready to release the seal, Sasuke entered their fight from the treetops.

"I'm not gonna let you fight him alone. He is one of the 3 sannin. Only an idiot would try to fight him alone. Especially half naked."

The squealing he had expected at his quip never came. Instead Haruno shifted into a different fighting stance and released the chakra that was stored in her back. She had forty minutes until it was to be used up but the fight lasting that long seemed highly improbable. As for Sasuke, he was right of course. She shouldn't fight Orochimaru alone. It didn't matter that Orochimaru was only humoring them and holding back. The thought crossed her mind, that if she was to train with him, she would improve greatly.

 _I feel nauseated please never think that again Ha-chan. I can't literally not think of a worse idea._

 **It just crossed my mind, ok? There are too many unknown factors. I wouldn't do it, ok?**

Orochimaru however was thrilled. He smirked and sent a volley of snake summons towards her, forcing her to retreat to a high branch some meters away. Now that he thought she was out of reach, it gave him the perfect opportunity to plant the cursed seal on Sasuke, who was currently sending a fireball his way.

 _There was no way to avoid this, am I right?_

 **No. He was done for as soon as Orochimaru spotted us. It´s over- We lost.**

"Oh Sasuke, how good of you to join the fight again. I so wanted to give you a parting gift."

And with that Orochimaru's neck stretched to a ridiculous degree and tried to bite Sasuke in his neck.

" If you want to kill your brother, if you want power, come to me."

Making a last desperate attempt she already knew was going to fail, Haruno lunged between them, Sakura pumping extra chakra to their muscles, and caught Orochimaru´s head not even a millisecond too early.

Utterly surprised by having intercepted him she watched in horror as he bit her instead only to free himself again.

"You could just have said so from the beginning Sakura-chan. I would gladly have given you this little present too, you didn't have to act so coy!" Orochimaru purred into her ear as the pain surged throughout her body, his foreign chakra invading each and every cell and the seal forming on her neck. She couldn't move anymore, every part, every capacity that she and Sakura had, fought against the seal.

Shortly after that he planted the seal on Sasuke, who screamed and broke down in pain.

"Watch over him for me Sakura-chan. And feel free to follow him, when he comes to me. I could use someone with your abilities."

"Never. I'm not stupid. You may keep your monsters, but you won't have me."

He laughed heartily. She could see Naruto lying on the side, Sasuke cramping not far from her and she herself was trying her best not to succumb to the seal's evil chakra. It took all of her and Sakura´s combined will to force it back into her neck and seal it in a counter seal so she wouldn't lose conscience too. Still she was only buying herself time. In a few minutes the chakra she used to hold the seal would run out and she would once again be consumed by the heat and pain. But until then she needed to get them to safety.

"We´ll see. I can remove that for you, if you come. I wouldn't try it myself if I were you, unless you want to die, that is. Toodles."

And with a strong blow of wind he was gone.

 _Asshole._

 **Basically.**

 _There is not much time left. I have only a faint idea how your seal works and I can't hold it much longer._

 **I know.**

 _Hurry then!_

… **Moving this body is currently a little more difficult than usually Sa-chan.**

With enormous difficulty, they maneuvered their body towards Sasuke who had already lost conscious and picked him up. Then they walked over to Naruto, grabbed his collar and dragged him with them.

They only made it to the next clearing, half a mile from where the battle ended before Haruno could feel her energy fading.

 _Quick! I can't stop it anymore._

Panting she hid the boys beneath a root covering them with leaves and small branches as fast as she could.

Then she bit her thumb, pouring the last of her chakra inside.

"Watch over us please,", was all she pressed out when Munin appeared only to lose consciousness directly after that.

"Sakura-chan are you ok?"

Haruno blinked and she could have sworn the silhouette above her looked like Hinata.

"Am I dead already?"

Hinata chuckled softly and shook her head.

"Shino said you were in trouble. What happened? You were all unconscious when we arrived. There is a huge snake carcass about a mile from here. Are you ok?"

 **Who is here? Who is in our general vicinity? Whom can you feel?**

 _Hinata. Shino, Kiba. Naruto is still out of it. Sasuke, he is mixed with Orochimaru's chakra. I'm afraid he's gone too far. Ino, Shikamaru and Choji in the bushes, 300 meters north-north east from us. Neji Lee and Tenten are moving away from us. There are three almost corpses. Oto nin judging by chakra but I'm not entirely sure. They're minutes away from death._

Satisfied for the moment Haruno blinked once more and focused on Hinata's face.

"I´m fine. The sannin Orochimaru attacked us. That snake was his. How is my team?"

"Ok, for the moment. Sasuke-kun seems a little … different. I´d be careful."

"What happened?"

Haruno already knew what happened. And it wasn´t good by any means.

"When we arrived you were already unconscious. You lay completely in the open, it was very unsettling. Shortly after us the team from Oto arrived. They weren't interested in us, just said they wanted to kill Sasuke-kun. Kiba and Shino fought them. For some reason Neji and his team arrived here too. Lee-kun is amazing. He single handedly punched that one guy through a tree. But then Sasuke-kun woke up and he… he … I think he lost control. Anyway now they're as good as dead. I think he was embarrassed because he gave us their scroll."

Haruno tried to get up, groaning since the seal in her neck stung rather unpleasantly.

"That's bad. I´m not sure whether I shouldn't just stop the exams for my team right here. They would be disappointed but it would be less dangerous. Orochimaru is interested in Sasuke, you see?"

"Don´t. I mean it, don't. It´s not your decision whether they should get themselves in danger. It´s theirs."

Haruno had to smile at that. It wasn´t the first time Hinata had spoken out, and it wouldn't be the last time. But she was right in any case.

"Ok, I won't, promise."

While Hinata helped her up, Shino, who had previously examined the corpses, walked over to them. He was worried about their health but most of all he was antsy that whoever had attacked previously might come back to finish the job.

"Hinata, we should get going. The tower isn't far."

Then he inclined his head towards Haruno. "Sakura-san."

"Shino-kun. Take care."

With that Shino took to the trees. Kiba was already waiting for him there. Hinata hugged Haruno and turned away, only to look back over her shoulder, her face worried.

"You should make use of whatever is in your seals. I´m sure everyone saw them, which means they won't be a secret much longer anyway. Use everything in your arsenal Sakura. There are some pretty fucked up people competing. You'll need it to survive. I´ll see you at the tower."

That being said, she joined her teammates in the trees and they left.

 _Well, if you ask me, we're fucked._

 **Yup, I know. Give me an update on our surroundings.**

 _Naruto is awake now. He is sitting south from here. Sasuke broods on a tree 20 meters across the clearing. Team 8 and 10 are both leaving. Team Guy has already reached the tower. There are two teams headed in our general direction. They probably felt the fight. We have approximately an hour before they arrive._

 **Will they be a problem?**

 _Hahaha, no. They're already weakened somehow. Either someone got their scroll already or they had problems with the wildlife._

 **Good. I'll deal with them. You can rest if you want.**

 _No, not yet. When we're at the tower. Right now I wanna make sure we're not gonna get ambushed by surprise._

 **Makes sense.**

"Sakura-chan are you ok?"

Naruto walked up to them, worry evident on his face. He was still hurting and the seal on his belly still scrambled. He stopped when he saw their half naked form, covered in seals.

"Sakura-chan… what?"

"I´m fine, Naruto. Come here, I have something for you, since you don't have any weapons left."

Haruno placed a hand on her right hip bone and released the seal holding the survival pack for Naruto. She had one for both boys but in Naruto's was more food, while Sasuke´s had more kunai.

"I packed you and Sasuke both a pack. Go through it and tell me if you need something else, there is a good chance I have it."

Naruto reluctantly grabbed his pack and opened it. While his expression had been confused, scared and worried just mere seconds before it changed when he looked at everything she had packed for him to a confident grin.

"Woah Sakura-chan you're amazing. You packed all this by yourself? We can get a scroll with all of this, we can get all the scrolls! They won't even know what hit them, believe it! And you got me ramen protein bars, AWESOME!"

"I glad you're happy with it. If you don't mind I'm gonna change now."

Tapping her right wrist, she summoned the two sets of spare clothing into her hands, her red qipao among them.

"Oh that is where it went, I thought you had lost it."

Haruno chuckled. Then she put the qipao and the second change of clothes back into the seal and quickly changed into the black training garb.

"Hn."

Haruno knew what his problem was. He was stressed, his body hurt like a bitch, and above all he was angry. Angry at Orochimaru for forcing a decision on him, angry at his brother for killing his family and he was angry at her, for keeping her skills in sealing from him, for annoying him all the time and for lying. Because that's what he figured she'd done. Lie. Lie about her crush, about her abilities, about her intelligence. He was mad that she hadn't given them the backpacks right at the beginning, he was sure that with them they could have won against Orochimaru or at least escaped. He was mad because she was stronger and better than him and he couldn't figure out why. And he was angry that both her and Naruto, hadn't reacted to the killing intent like a scared little five-year-old.

"What."

 _Good, act like you're a remotely normal person, good._

"Do you have a problem, Sasuke-kun?"

 _Less good, too standoffish, maybe try less aggressive?_

 **Hell no. He already made his decision. He´s gonna leave. Might as well give him a good reason.**

 _Ok, what is the real problem here?_

"If you had those backpacks the whole time, why didn't you give them to us sooner?"

Haruno bared her teeth. His whole thought process made her want to punch him, hard. He felt entitled to her supplies, already thinking of that backpack as his and judging her for keeping it from him, as if she was trying to hold him back.

"They're for emergencies, like this one. Earlier when Orochimaru appeared all of a sudden, I might have been able to do something, but you idiot had to confront him right away. But yes, sure, I'll just ask him to hold the fight for a little so I can give you a backpack filled with tools and you can get acquainted with the contents. Are you seriously so stupid?"

 _Ha-chan what is your real problem? It can't be him, he never ticked you off like that before!_

 **I couldn't prevent him from leaving, ok?!**

Naruto was staring at them open-mouthed, not quite understanding what was going on, and for once he couldn't find the right words to make them stop fighting. When had Sakura-chan become so fierce, so formidable, and frightening? He was taken aback by the power emanating from her small frame. Never did he think he might burn himself if he got too close but now that feeling was overwhelming.

Sasuke however felt righteous anger. She had hidden her true self from them, like he had suspected. But not only that, it seemed she held nothing but contempt for him, which annoyed him. She was his to play with if he so wished. Though above all, she was stronger and it drove him mad. Unable to vocalize his anger he just turned away.

"Hnn."

He needed to show her that he was better, and that she meant nothing to him, that she was not important enough for him to care about. He would be out of this shithole of a village in no time.

 _Great kami, how are you going to diffuse this, Ha-chan? It's a mess!_

"Don't be an idiot, take the backpack. We need you on your A-game today unless you wanna lose this shit."

Haruno tossed him the bag and begrudgingly, he caught it. He wasn't a complete idiot, and able to swallow his pride this time. He didn't want her to suspect his decision, she'd only rat him out.

"Hnn."

 _Ok that was surprising. What happened?_

 **He doesn't want me to know he doesn't give a fuck about this whole exam, that he already decided to join Oro. So, he's playing nice.**

"There are two groups of shinobi heading our way. They're both weakened. One is approaching from North-North-East and the other from North-West-West. We have approximately 45 minutes before they approach since they move rather slowly to escape our notice."

 _Kabuto is also heading our way. But I think he is just curious whether we still live after that bastard Oro sent Dozu´s team to kill us._

 **He is neglectable then. Let´s plan this shit.**

Naruto who was now shaking his wake-coma away nodded enthusiastically.

"Shall I place some mines in the ground?"

"No, we need to be moving when they find us, they need to think we're on the run. Let´s go north and meet them, make them think we don't know they're coming. And then we'll crush them. Get ready Naruto," Sasuke said, already ready to pounce.

"Just a second, Sasuke-kun. I need to check something, " she said as she walked over to Naruto and put a hand on his stomach. His seal was still disrupted, as was his chakra flow.

"What are you doing Sakura-chan?!" Naruto asked nervously trying to hide a blush.

Haruno just closed her eyes and concentrated. She had no time for this puberty-nonsense.

 _Just wait till our hormones decide otherwise._

 **I'm learning to be a medic nin after this shit-show, I'm gonna stop those nasty hormones!**

 _Good luck with that, sister._

"I'm checking your chakra-flow. Calm down Naruto."

While Naruto gulped, she probed the disruption-seal with her chakra and found that she could easily manipulate it to dissolve. She could feel Naruto relax as his chakra flooded back into his body. Then, very carefully she checked the Kyubi´s seal to make sure it was still intact.

 **Everything seems to be fine, although it's a little loose. But that might help in the end. He will be able to use Kurama's chakra.**

 _That's good right?_

 **Only if he keeps control. But he is strong-willed so I don't see a problem at the moment.**

"Ok, you're all right now. We can move."

With that they headed north to meet their opponents.

They arrived at the tower later that day. The boys were still horribly exhausted and so was Haruno. The only person who couldn't seem to stop thinking was Sakura.

 _So, do you think they'll promote us to chunin after this?_

 **I just don't care about what happens here anymore. Everything went to shit when we decided to participate. We might as well just rock this exam. Sasuke has already decided to leave. The exams are not under our control and they never were. We must make the best of it now.**

 _I hate it when your plans don't work. I hate surprises. I hate not being in control._

 **Yeah, me too.**

 _We are lucky though. There is only one casualty so far. Mr. Idiot Mc Jerkface._

 **But it must be the only one. We have enough time to form a suitable strategy for the rest of the exams. I can't have anyone die because I was careless. So yes. We'll probably become chunin.**

 _Is there nothing we can do to keep safe our useless reputation?_

 **I'm afraid there isn't. Unless everybody overlooks us again and thinks we were just lucky I don't see us staying genin. Danzo is probably already on his move.**

 _Kami, I hate his guts._

 **Yeah. Same.**

 _Oh look. There is Hinata. I'm glad that she's here._

They had been greeted by Kakashi when they arrived and were given their room assignments. There were still 3 more days before the second part of the exams ended and so far, only 6 teams had arrived. But before anything else happened, Haruno had to brief someone important about what happened in the forest, so she just uttered the words: "We had a run in with Orochimaru. Sasuke needs sealing."

The reaction Kakashi gave her, was everything. His one visible eye widened, his eyebrow vanished behind his hairline and his posture became so stiff she was sure he´d shatter if he fell now.

"Follow me. All three of you."

 **Well this is gonna be fun.**

 _Do you think I'm looking forward to it?_

 **Not in the slightest.**

_

Once again Team 7 stood before Sarutobi and he was not amused. This time they had a run in with his ex-student and barely survived, which only meant that Orochimaru had plans for them. A cold shudder ran over his back. He felt pity for the young genin. If Orochimaru put his mind to it, even Sarutobi himself wouldn't be capable of keeping them safe.

As he listened to Naruto´s retelling of the events, he felt affirmed in his suspicions. Not only had Haruno Sakura become proficient with sealing, no, she had done it without anybody noticing. He marveled at what else she was hiding up her sleeves. If she could be trusted, she would be an asset with a shot at a bright future

Sarutobi could see the incredulity in Kakashi's eyes. Never had he suspected that Sarutobi could be right about Sakura being capable of more than she let on. He had been so utterly disinterested in her that he didn't want to notice.

"Is there something any of you´d like to add?" he asked them when Naruto was done.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. As it happens Naruto was incapacitated for some of the time so he did not witness everything. It seems that somebody slipped Orochimaru all the participants' files, so he would be able to find possible new recruits. It also appears that he tried to loosen Naruto's seal. Furthermore, as Naruto already told you, he bit both Sasuke-kun and me. I´ve already sealed it as well as I could, but as it happens I would like a master to look over the curse-mark to make sure everything will be ok."

Straight to the point. He liked her more and more.

"Anything else?"

"I´d advise you to suspend Sasuke-kun from the exams for his own good, if I didn't know that it is vital to show him off to our allies. Still it would definitely be better for him to be hidden away for the rest of the exams."

Her stance surprised him, especially when he noticed the deadly look the person in question shot the girl. Wasn´t she infatuated with him? Sarutobi couldn't see a single sign of that.

"I´ll take your advice into account, thank you. Kakashi, would you escort them back to their rooms, and check the curse seals, will you?"

If it wasn't so serious, Sarutobi would have laughed at how shook Kakashi was about the whole situation.

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

Two days passed and the exam ended. In the end only 7 teams had passed the second stage. During those two days Sasuke was treated by Kakashi, who was the only person proficient in seals besides Haruno and Jiraiya. He only had a few things to add and change but apart from that he was very impressed with her.

Satisfied by the shame he felt for willfully ignoring them, Sakura watched him raise his eyebrows in surprise when he saw their daily workout paying close attention this time.

Minutes after the last team arrived Anko called them all together and looked at them in feigned surprise.

"The exam must be too easy this year, there is too many of you. We´ll have to decimate you. Fortunately we´re prepared. The preliminaries start in five minutes. If you want to give up, feel free to do so by raising your arm. "

Kabuto, who was still there, raised his arm, smiling innocently.

 **I fucking hate that guy.**

 _Same. He is so… sooo…._

 **Devious? Insidious? Asshole-ish?**

 _All of that._

"I'm really tired. I´d like to give up."

The smirk of dark satisfaction that bloomed on Anko´s face absolutely lightened up their day.

"Ah, Kabuto, how nice of you to call the attention to yourself."

Suddenly he was restrained by 4 Anbu and pressed to the ground. The two remaining members of his team were already knocked out cold and thrown over an anbu´s shoulder.

"Consider yourself arrested, traitor. Take them away, guys."

A murmur went through the lines of genin as Kabuto and his team were carted away, without a doubt to be questioned.

"Scram kids, you have only 4 minutes left before we start."

And with that she sent everyone to the balcony to confer with their senseis before they started.

"Wow I thought he was nice! That's really a bummer Sakura-chan. You know, I thought we could be friends with him."

"It's ok Naruto. He was probably one of Orochimaru's spies. You don't need to feel bad for him."

It was only a short wait before the next proctor called the attention to himself.

"I am Hayate Gekko, your proctor and the first match of the preliminaries will be announced now."

Behind him a huge screen lit up. For once it was truly random, which was a gambit, but Sarutobi hoped to make Orochimaru's life harder that way.

"First Match: Tomoki Haroko vs. Temari of Sunagakure. Assume your positions."

Temari, confident in her own abilities, landed silently on the far side of the arena. She had seen the team from Takigakure and judged them to be no match for her abilities. That was her first mistake. Tomoki's skillset gave him a huge advantage over Temari. Haruno waited a few moments and moves from both sides to state her prognosis. Temari had taken out her fan and thrown a few wind blasts towards Tomoki but he had countered it with a thick mist, that resisted her wind for about a minute before Temari could dissolve it. When the fog lifted there were 3 Tomoki´s and the ground was flooded with water.

"He'll win."

"How can you know that Sakura-chan?"

"It's easy Naruto, she has concentrated all her training on her skill with that fan on her back. She is an A-class distance-fighter. But see him? His skills are more varied. He knows at least 4 different water jutsu. And do you see that sparkling in the air? Ninja wire. If she moves too much she´s gonna get cut. And those? Those are just clones – he has morphed into a puddle and is just waiting for her to come too close. If she was more patient, she'd easily outlast him, but she hates waiting. Sooner or later she´s gonna figure out that he is in the water but before that it's gonna be too late. When she´s destroyed the last clones with her fan, he'll already be behind her, kunai at her throat."

Naruto stared blankly at Haruno. She could see he was beyond impressed. Especially when it happened exactly as she had stated.

She could feel Kakashi´s and Sasuke´s stare on the back of her head. Slowly but surely Kakashi came to realize that he had misjudged her heavily.

 **Wanna take over for a while?**

 _Yeah. Why not. It's not like anything thrilling is going to happen until it's our turn._

The next match, Gaara vs. Kiba ended after about 30 seconds. Kiba and Akamaru survived but only barely, thanks to several Konoha jonin.

After that Kankuro fought Choji and won. Then Naruto fought an Kiri-nin called Mimi. Naruto won by sheer violent force and greater chakra reserves. His tactic was simple but effective : sending an army of shadow clones her way while preparing multiple explosive traps. She was still fuming when they carried her out.

The next match was Hinata against Shikamaru. It was a close thing.

Even if Hinata had trained with Sakura extensively, Shikamaru was still a genius. He had studied all his fellow Konoha genin before the exams and had worked out plans and tactics to win during that month for every single one of them. So naturally Hinata was at a severe disadvantage. The fact that Sakura and Haruno had her learn a lightning jutsu balanced the scale thanks to the ground which was still covered with water, courtesy of the Taki-nin Tomoki.

A little, but not enough.

As soon as the battle started Shikamaru jumped back, to get out of Hinata´s range and sent out his shadow. Hinata, anticipating his move, ran off towards the far end of the arena, throwing multiple smoke bombs. After obscuring Shikamaru´s field of vision she created a clone that stood on the wall throwing shuriken at him while she herself prepared her lightning jutsu. To Hinata's surprise it looked like he fell for the clone, sending a volley of kunai in its direction. She hadn't taken time to activate her byakugan. It was her goal to end the fight as soon as possible.

The jutsu was a simple one, creating a coat of electricity around her body. Nevertheless because of the water, Shikamaru was shocked by a strong surge of lightning he didn't anticipate. He fell to the ground. The whole arena was dead silent.

They could hear him muttering to himself. The shock had not been strong enough.

"Troublesome woman with her troublesome surprise jutsu."

Hayate Gekko walked over to him. He squatted down next to him and asked: "Do you yield?"

"SHIKAMARU NARA IF YOU YIELD I WILL MAKE YOUR FUCKING ASS SO SORRY, YOU WILL WISH YOUR MISERABLE ASS WAS DEAD!"

"Apparently not."

The occasional laughter echoed through the arena as Shikamaru rose to his feet, a tinge of panic only evident to the older ninja and Haruno, as he straightened himself and got into a fighting stance.

Suddenly a gasp went through the ranks as they spotted Hinata when the smoke lifted, in the exactly same fighting stance just a few meters away.

A small smile spread over Shikamaru´s face as he started holding his breath, something he had practiced and forced Hinata to stop breathing too. After that the fight ended. Hinata passed out from breathlessness. Shikamaru ended his jutsu after Hayate declared the fight over.

"Wow she put up a good fight, but how did Shikamaru know it was a clone?"

This time Kakashi felt like explaining it to Naruto.

"He felt it, most genin are capable of discerning between clones and humans by scanning for chakra presences. And he probably anticipated it. He is a genius after all."

"Huh."

"UCHIHA SASUKE VS: MORI AMAYA"

Naruto who was still cross with Sasuke´s behavior in the second round grimaced. It was an easy fight for Sasuke, as if someone had rigged the system. Only this time nobody had as far as Haruno could discern.

Amaya was a typical Kiri-nin, using needles, mist, and poison, something that Sasuke already fought in his first real mission three months ago. He made quick work of her.

Lee defeated her teammate Inari shortly after that and then TenTen all but wiped the arena floor with the girl from Takigakure.

Having no time to waste, Sakura disabled Hayase Manami from Taki with a swift blow to the neck he never saw coming. It was anticlimactic at best. His greatest talent, genjutsu, had no effect on her, and she was way faster through her training with Gai-sensei. She earned more than one irritated look.

 **I'm not the only one who kills our cover anymore, hehe**.

 _We already agreed to stop pretending. I'm just rolling with it._

 **Yeah show-off. You just wanted everyone to know not to try to mess with us.**

 _Perhaps._

With a graceful jump, that Ino was very envious of, Sakura reclaimed her place next to Naruto who enthusiastically high fived her. It took a little time until Hayate Gekko awakened from his surprise induced stupor and the last match, Ino vs. Neji vs. Shino began.

Shino and Ino partnered up instantly, but Neji, being one year their senior, was prepared for that. He got rid of Ino first, the one who could potentially penetrate his defense. After that it didn't take long for Shino, after losing most of his hive, to give up.

Following that Hayate announced the finalists and the first pairs for the first round. Lee would be her first opponent. Then they were ushered to the exit.

There was one month to prepare.

_One month to train.

Kakashi trained with Sasuke. He had arranged for Naruto to train with the sannin Jiraiya. When Sakura asked him who she would train with, he blanked. Her prowess had surprised him. But not enough to think of a teacher for her.

Haruno couldn't believe her eyes when she saw it. He wanted her to be weak so bad he willfully closed his eyes to her abilities.

 _Why though? Why does he hate us so much?_

 **It's not hate. He is scared. We remind him of his old teammate Rin. He wants us to be useless so we won't have to go on seriously dangerous missions. It's not even conscious.**

 _And here I was, thinking he was just an ass._

 **Well you're not completely wrong.**

"So?"

Kakashi was a genius after all so he made use of his brain and listed a few people who could help her stay mediocre. Haruno already had a plan whom she´d ask to train her and predictably none of them overlapped.

After that she went on her merry way to track down Jiraiya in the red-light district, intending to bully him into giving her a few hints with seals. It was remarkably easy since he had heard about her and his weakness for strong women made him eager to teach her anyway. Jiraiya pointed out that there was a beginning and an end to every seal and that not everything was as it seemed.

"Sometimes you have to look at all the angles. The Uzumaki used to disguise every end and beginning, going so far as to hide them in the middle, making various duds so you couldn't undo it. It's part of the reason their seals were so infamous. If you failed at undoing an Uzumaki seal, there was usually an explosion involved. Which again led to their downfall. I don't think anyone nowadays uses seals that complicated and elaborate – sure there are still remnants and I could probably recreate some of them, but it's just not functional except for maybe my research, hehe."

"It would be though, if you taught other ninja about it. We could receive sealed messages from our spies and if an enemy tried to steal the info it´d be totally useless to them. Best case, they'd try to open it and explode."

 **He wonders if we're related to Orochimaru. Urgh**.

 _Because we use logic?_

 **Because I said "best case they explode".**

 _Ok that makes sense._

Jiraiya halted for a second, weighing his options, but in the end he decided on lying. Even if this girl reminded him uncomfortably of a mix between his old teammates or maybe especially for that reason he wouldn't talk about his arrangement with the Third.

"Do you know anyone beside yourself that studies seals? It's insanely difficult for most people. There are maybe 10 jounin in the entire village that are proficient at seals."

 **Haha. Lie.**

"That seems like a crass negligence on the Hokage´s part."

"I agree. But nobody listens to an old pervert."

 **Meh. Half true.**

"So I expect you to treat Naruto right. He's softer than he lets on. Those first few years of his life when he was all alone, didn´t pass without effects."

With that they left without another word, leaving an intrigued yet puzzled Jiraiya in their wake.

Sakura had already asked Kurenai to teach her a few genjutsu right after the last match, knowing she´d gladly teach someone genjutsu. Apart from that both of her continued their rigorous training with Gai-sensei and sent another shadow clone to the hospital to observe healing procedures. Hinata was always with her original, making sure she ate and slept enough. Saying things like "I don't want my roomie to die before the fight even begins".

The month passed incredibly fast. They had learned more effectively than ever before.

 **I'm so glad we don't have to keep up the useless ruse anymore.**

 _I kinda liked it, you know?_

Haruno had even begun to unravel the scrolls in her possession. It appeared that her ancestors' scrolls used some sort of encryption cipher that required her to write a password she didn't have, on the paper.

 _We have diaries and un-decoded writings from great-grandpa. Maybe we can find hints in there?_

And so, the rather tedious work had begun halfway through the training month. They had yet to find the password, but they were getting there.

Listening to Jiraiya´s advice they looked for multiple duds on the Uzumaki scroll and found the beginning of the seal. It took them 6 shadow clones working on it nonstop for 2 weeks.

 **This is great! I wanted to unseal this fucking thing since I first held it.**

 _Haruno. Ha-chan. No. You will not unseal this kinjutsu-scroll in the middle of the kami-damned chunin-exams. Just no. Do you want them to take it away from you? To discover our true selves? Hell no. You will wait a little longer. Reason demands it._

 **Since when are you reason?**

 _Since always. And don't deny it. You know it's true. Now go store some chakra you idiot._

They day of the final test came and Haruno was tired. So very tired.

 **You do it Sa-chan. I´m just too tired. It's not important in the grand scheme of things anyway. I´m going to sleep. Don´t wake me up.**

 _What about Orochimaru?_

 **I don´t care. Give him the middle finger for me. I just wanna sleep. I know you can deal with this.**

 _I know you will regret it later, as you always do. But rest assured that I don't blame you. I'll do my best._

Sakura was used to these little breakdowns from Haruno. They would occur occasionally. Sometimes it got worse and Haruno refused to deal with anything for weeks, sometimes it got better and she remained strong, confident, and motivated for a month or so, but most of the time Haruno felt empty while looking at the world around her. She couldn't hide it from Sakura, didn't bother. They both knew the reason for it. Sakura thought that a therapist might have helped, but both knew that they could never speak openly to anyone about themselves. Haruno had refused medication of any kind right at the start. She was afraid it would impair their abilities and make them vulnerable, completely ignoring the fact that her state was far more dangerous for them.

 **I don't give a fuck right now. I´m not even sorry about it.**

 _Well at least you're earnest. I'll have it covered. I think._

The presence of Haruno´s conscious faded then until there was only a tiny speck left. Sakura was on her own. She could do this. Probably. It would be at least another hour until her fight against Lee was up and she had a small glimmer of hope that Haruno might be back by then. Meanwhile she just had to be as observant as she could. All through the first three fights she concentrated on every presence in the room, making sure to monitor their chakra levels as well. It was exhausting and she couldn't feel the presences of most Anbu and some Jonin, but she did her best. So far nothing was in motion as far as she could tell. The fact that Hayate Gekko had been killed made her very uneasy though. She barely registered Tenten's triumph over Kankuro, that Shikamaru made a total fool of Sasuke with ease, or that Naruto defeated Neji in a poetic act of defiance after Neji had given him a "Give up now, your fate is decided" speech. Nothing mattered but the chakra levels inside the Hokage´s box.

When it was her turn to fight, she jumped into the arena to face Lee. He grinned at her.

"I will do my very best, Sakura-chan, as will you, I'm sure!"

Sakura couldn't suppress a relieved laugh. At least Lee was a chipper as always. She´d beat him. But she was gonna do her best, so they'd both get out of this fight without regrets.

"Let's make Gai-sensei proud, shall we?"

"Agreed. Let's show everyone the power of youth!"

They both fell into the stance associated with the strong fist and got ready. Sakura could hear Gai-sensei crying tears of youth and joy from the sidelines.

Genma who was now a proctor, must have recognized her from her countless times in the library, since he lifted an eyebrow at the sight of her utilizing strong fist stances.

"You're both ready? Then let´s go. Start!"

Sakura instantly fell back, created a rock wall and started dodging Lee´s hits like mad. He had been training with Gai for far longer than she and was also only dedicated to taijutsu, which she intended to use to her advantage.

They clashed 5 times while she was preparing her Genjutsu, him landing way more hits than her, but when he entered her reach the 6th time she was done preparing. It wasn't a second too soon. She wouldn't have been able to absorb any more blows. Lee stood still, silent despair in his face as his world and all his friends burned before his eyes. It was easy then for Sakura to shift behind him and pin him to the ground.

"Fight is over. Sakura Haruno wins!"

When she disabled her Genjutsu, Lee cried out in relief.

"I'm so glad that you're all are not dead! I was so afraid I´d never see you again!"

Sakura pat his back and hugged him.

"I´m sorry I used such a tactic on you Lee! But I couldn't have won if I only concentrated on taijutsu."

Lee, tears still running down his face, drew back and gave her a dazzling smile with thumbs up.

"No, don't apologize! You and I both did our best, just like we promised. I´m happy for you! You were clearly the smarter one in this battle! I am glad you defeated me, but as compensation I shall train even harder to defeat you one day!"

"I'm sure you will!" She waited in her spot since the next fight would involve her as well but Shikamaru forfeited without even bothering to come down. Sasuke´s face as he realized that Shikamaru didn't expect to win against her was glorious.

They cleared the arena for the next pair.

The battle had barely started when Gaara was done killing Taki´s Tomoki. Gaara laughed as Tomoki´s teammates cried out. He was hardly himself anymore.

Sakura got more anxious by the minute. Gaara was preparing to release Shukaku and as soon as his control slipped, and it would so soon, the invasion would begin.

Naruto and Tenten's match passed in a blast, Sakura couldn't even say who had won until a very beatdown Naruto appeared at her side.

"Your turn, Sakura-chan. Good luck," he mumbled as he patted her back.

"Thanks."

She jumped down and took her place. Sakura was hardly able to control her breathing, she was mortified. There was a dangerous glint in Gaara's eyes.

 _HARUNO FOR FUCKS SAKE, WAKE UP THIS INSTANT! WE´RE IN MORTAL DANGER!_

 **No need to scream like that.**

 _Good, you're awake._

 **Unfortunately.**

 _Debatable. Anyways. You think you can use that disruption seal Oro-creep used on Naruto?_

 **No.**

 _Oh come ON!_

 **I´m not kidding. If I use that seal, Shukaku gets free. Gaara's seal is way more fragile than Naruto´s. If I had some time, I MIGHT be able to think of something.**

 _Then start thinking. I don't know how much time I can buy you._

"BEGIN!"

Without missing a beat he assaulted them with his sand. It came from every direction and Sakura jumped.

She released their weight seals, and dodged his sand, not even trying to hit him. Her goal was buying time.

She was able to stay one step ahead of the sand, but barely. Twice Gaara's sand nearly got to her.

"Stop running!" he screamed, getting tired of her dodging. Suddenly a strong wave of chakra rippled through her.

"Uh oh."

In his irritation he had almost lost control.

"OK. Fine. Then come and get me!" screamed Sakura while charging directly at him. He saw her coming and his sand formed a defensive wall, which she used to catapult herself into the air. She formed the seals as she flew and when she reached the highest point of her jump, she spit acid water at him. Slowly it dissolved his sand into muddy muck.

"You'll regret this!"

Sakura knew what he was going to do without the soul seeing eyes. The maniac grin gave Gaara away. He closed his eyes and the sand formed a large orb around him as he ultimately, after all those years, fell asleep again.

Shukaku finally took over and the sand, now everywhere, started to form the beast´s body. In her periphery sight Sakura saw that the invasion had begun.

 _Any minute now would be great!_

 **Shut up, I need to concentrate.**

Sakura narrowly dodged a sand-projectile. Or she thought the did, because the next second she felt hot pain blooming in her left side.

She screamed, but it only served to rile Shukaku up even more. He enjoyed himself immensely that bastard.

 **I´m ready!**

The pain had mostly been adsorbed by Sakura's mind but Haruno had felt an echo. She was sure their kidney was mush.

 _I focus on containing pain, you move._

Sakura did her best, but she already felt delirious, so Haruno spun their body around Shukaku´s projectiles towards him.

"I warned you," Haruno pressed out just as she thrust her fingers into the monster's stomach. There were screams everywhere around them, but they couldn't hear a single thing. Gaara's eyes became his own again as a wave of nauseating pain washed over Haruno.

 _Good job._

 **You too**.

They never felt the world go dark, but suddenly it was.

"Sakura-chan."

The sting in their side became more and more prevalent and finally they awoke. A fast mental check revealed they laid in a bed, hospital probably.

 _How are we still alive?_

 **I´d have to open our eyes to know but I don't want to.**

"Sakura!"

The voice sounded more urgent now. Their ears were still ringing so neither of them could really say who it was.

"Forehead for fucks sake wake up already!"

 **Aah Ino.**

 _She´s an absolute dear. But maybe we should show them we're still alive?_

 **Hopefully they'll up the morphine. It feels like someone is drilling into our kidney**.

 _There is no kidney left to drill in to be honest. At least judging by our chakra flow._

 **Oh for fucks sake…**

Finally Haruno opened their eyes, she was going to ask for the nurse and more morphine but the second Ino spotted they were awake, she hurled herself at her.

"I´m so glad you´re still alive! I don't know what I would have done if you had died. Please, I'm so sorry for being such a bitch, really you can have him, I don't want him anymore if I have to choose between you both."

"Ouch, Ino my side!"

Ino recoiled from her and gave her a little space.

"I´m sorry."

Behind Ino, Haruno could see her team, and Hinata who was as still as a mouse.

"Can you turn the wheel on my morphine back a little, my side hurts like a bitch. Thanks. So what happened?"

Kakashi took the lead. Previously he had been hanging in the back of the hospital room but now he couldn't contain his interest any longer.

"What do you remember?"

This was supposed to be an informal interrogation. They (Danzo) hoped she'd be more open with her sensei, so they (Danzo)wouldn't have to resort to other means (torture a young genin who helped save the village).

"Last thing I remember is Gaara changing into Shukaku. He must have lost control. There was fighting on the ranks and I think I managed to disrupt the chakra flow in his body, but I'm not sure. Did it work?"

 **Alright it worked. Can you believe they have actually captured him? And nobody knows how to undo my seal so he is still out of sync. I'm a fucking genius.**

 _Is that why it took you so look? You had to encrypt the damn thing?_

 **Not a single one of my seals isn't encrypted. I thought you paid attention? How else are you able to open them when you take over?**

 _I just thought every seal was as complicated as yours are._

"It worked. As to the fighting you saw, there was a joint invasion attempt from Suna and Oto. Orochimaru killed the Hokage. Suna surrendered after it was revealed that Orochimaru had killed the Kazekage. And thanks to your sealing skills we have captured their Jinjuriki."

 _Your ego is unbelievable. They killed the Hokage but all you focus on is how great your seal worked._

 **I aim to please you.**

"What happens now?"

"You rest. You lost a kidney. Naruto and Jiraiya the toad sage will try to find Tsunade-hime. She might be able to restore you."

"Thank you, Naruto, Ino, Hinata, I´m glad you're safe."

Kakashi ignored her quip in his and Sasuke's direction, the later one´s mind had soured visibly, and asked his final question.

"How do you know how to seal a jinjuriki's chakra?"

Haruno looked him straight in the eyes and smiled broadly.

"Orochimaru used something like it against Naruto and I had to tweak it since Gaara's seal was much weaker and very unstable. It took me the whole match up until that point to figure out how to not kill him or free the One-tails.

"I see. Congratulations then Sakura-chan. You made chunin."

Even though Naruto was very disappointed not to be appointed a chunin, he could understand that Sakura deserved the promotion. So far she was the only one to get promoted and it was only due to her heroic acts during the invasion. She had single-handedly disabled the second biggest threat.

Sasuke however was cross. Although he couldn't deny that her feat was admirable to say the least, he felt betrayed. She hadn't confided in any of them. She had only pretended to like him. She held nothing but contempt for him. She was stronger than him. They even made her chunin, not him. Her, who came from a lowly merchant family. Her, who had been an annoying fangirl for as long as he could remember. He still struggled to fit the pieces together. It frustrated him, annoyed him to no end. He could feel the rage burning in him. He'd have loved to show her his indignation. That she didn't deserve what they gave her. But he knew almost instantly that she didn't see him as a rival, much less as someone worth fighting. He could throw all the insults in the world at her but in the end she'd laugh at him and walk away. But he´d show her. Her and that evil brother of his.

Orochimaru had beaten her. Orochimaru could teach him how to beat her. He´d give him the means to kill her and then his brother. Sasuke only had to come willingly.

And so he did.

He went in the middle of that same night, sure that no anbu had been assigned to him yet, not directly after the invasion. They were too busy otherwise. What he didn´t expect was that someone waited for him.

"Sakura?"

"Sasuke."

"What are y-you? You're not gonna stop me!"

Calmly she stood from the bench she had waited on. "I´m not here to stop you. I´m here to wish you luck. You'll need it if you're actually gonna venture out there, misinformed as you are."

Sasuke was about to demand an answer as she puffed out of existence. If he hadn't been angry before he sure was now. He wasn't even important enough for her to come herself( He conveniently forgot about her being bedridden).

With new purpose, ignoring her poisonous words, he marched on into the forest.

Nobody stopped him.

 _You enjoy being a cryptic fuck, don´t you?_

 **Hell yeah.**

 _So what is he gonna do now?_

 **Fuck himself up. Orochimaru´s gonna groom him to be his next vessel. If he wasn't such an ass I'd feel bad for him.**

 _You're unbelievable._

 **It's his own decision, hence his own fault. Let me have my fun with a deserter will you?**

 _When are we going to alarm the others?_

 **Kakashi will find out soon enough. We'll do nothing. Except maybe start studying medicine.**

 _Kami no. Let us rest just once?_

 **No rest for the wicked.**


End file.
